M and A
Indosuez WM Bulks Up With Another Acquisition
The group has put the finishing touches on another acquisition, adding to a deal it completed in Asia late last year.
Indosuez
Wealth Management, the global wealth management brand of
Paris-based Crédit
Agricole, has completed its acquisition of 94.1 per cent of
Italian wealth manager Banca Leonardo. The deal adds to purchases
the group has made in Asia.
The Leonardo deal was completed after Indosuez WM got the green
light from regulators, it said in a statement today.
The acquisition, which was first announced in November 2017,
means the combined firms will bring together 230 employees in
Italy serving clients from six offices. Total assets under
management in Italy are expected to represent around €7 billion
($8.4 billion). At the time of the November announcement,
Indosuez said the deal added €5.9 billion of AuM, based on
figures as of 30 June this year.
“The completion of this transaction is an important step for our
development in Italy, one of the group’s core markets. Our joint
ambition is to deliver a comprehensive, bespoke, wealth
management offering to Italian families and entrepreneurs,”
Olivier Chatain, chief executive of CA Indosuez Wealth (Europe),
said.
The transaction will have a one basis-point impact on Crédit
Agricole SA’s Common Tier 1 ratio, a measure of capital strength,
but it will not affect the ratio of the Crédit Agricole
Group.
In December last year, Indosuez Wealth Management completed
its purchase of Crédit Industriel et Commercial’s private banking
operations in Singapore and the entire paid-up share capital of
CIC Investors Services in Hong Kong. That transaction brought
Indosuez WM’s total assets under management in the Asia region to
around €12 billion, as reported at the time. Its employee base in
Asia also increased from 250 to more than 400 staff. That deal
allowed CIC clients to benefit from both Indosuez’s Hong Kong and
global multi-booking centres as well as discretionary portfolio
management, advisory mandates, private equity, wealth structuring
and corporate solutions capabilities.