M and A
Deals Of The Day: The Latest In Wealth Management M&A – AirFund, Amundi, Indosuez
The latest mergers, acquisitions and other corporate actions in the wealth management sector.
AirFund, Amundi, Indosuez Wealth Management
AirFund, a digital
platform created in 2021 to facilitate the link between
management companies and distributors of Private Markets funds
with retail investors, has reached a new milestone in its
development with a financing round of €6 million ($6.515
million).
This new round is jointly led by Amundi and Indosuez Wealth Management who will become minority cornerstone shareholders and will participate in the company's governance and strategic committee, the firms said in a statement.
This transaction, which is accompanied by three signed strategic partnerships, will help market private asset funds managed by Amundi and Indosuez, and facilitate subscription and repurchase transactions in these funds.
AirFund and Amundi Alternative & Real Assets will join forces to expand their offerings. On the one hand, funds managed by Amundi will henceforth be accessible via AirFund, enabling the company to reach new customers and ultimately serve existing Amundi customers through new digital channels. On the other hand, Amundi's expertise will help AirFund to offer tailor-made real asset fund of funds and feeder fund vehicles, thus meeting demand from AirFund's clients, be they asset management companies or distributors.
By partnering with AirFund, Indosuez Wealth Management will digitalise the distribution of its private markets funds to its large private investors, the Crédit Agricole Group's network banks and its external distribution partners. Indosuez said that this partnership is in line with its development strategy to take the growth of its private markets business beyond €10 billion in assets under management by 2025. In addition, the AirFund platform will digitalise the distribution of deals by Indosuez's real estate business line.
The B2B distribution platform Fund Channel (a joint venture between Amundi and CACEIS) will leverage AirFund to broaden the range of funds offered to its distributor clients by including private asset funds.
The financing round also enables AirFund to accelerate its organic growth by strengthening its teams, and to develop new growth drivers with an expansion plan in Switzerland, Germany, Benelux, the UK, Spain and Italy. It will also enable AirFund to consolidate its position across the entire distribution value chain, reinforcing its ambition to become Europe's leading player in the democratisation of private equity funds. AirFund already provides access to 40 private equity funds and over 1,000 partner distributors.
"In line with our strategic plan, this new partnership with the AirFund platform will enable Fund Channel to expand its service offering to private assets. It will also be an asset for the Amundi Real & Alternative platform, by making our products more accessible through the digitisation of the customer journey among institutional and retail investors," Nicolas Calcoen, deputy CEO and head of strategy, finance and control at Amundi, said.
"With an investment platform that has been recognised by the market for over 20 years, and assets under management of more than €7.5 billion, this partnership is part of Indosuez's strategy to accelerate its presence in private markets,” Nicolas Renauld, global head of private markets at Indosuez, said.