Indosuez WM Bulks Up With Another Acquisition

Tom Burroughes

3 May 2018

, 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.