Deals Of The Day: The Latest In Wealth Management M&A – Ardian, AXA, ACM, Wafra

Editorial Staff

20 July 2026

Two shareholders in , a Paris-headquartered global private investment firm, will increase their stake in the company, acquiring the 10 per cent stake that AXA has held in Ardian.

Assurances du Crédit Mutuel (ACM) and Wafra have boosted their stakes in Ardian, the latter firm said in a statement last week.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

This investment will take ACM‘s stake in Ardian to 23 per cent while Wafra will also invest additional capital following its initial minority investment in 2025.

Both shareholders will increase their investment by exercising pre-emption rights available to existing shareholders. Ardian’s employees will continue to remain the largest shareholder group, accounting for around 40 per cent of shares.

In parallel, AXA will continue its long-standing partnership as one of the principal investors in Ardian’s funds.

The agreement is expected to complete between late 2026 and early 2027.

"AXA has been our close partner from the very beginning, when I was first asked to create a private equity firm by Claude Bébéar in 1996 and Ardian, then AXA Private Equity, was born,” Dominique Senequier, CEO and founder of Ardian, said in a statement. Dating its origins to 1996, Ardian was formed by an employee buyout of AXA Private Equity in 2013.

Ardian manages or advises $200 billion for more than 1,920 clients worldwide across private equity, real assets and credit.

Separately last week, Ardian agreed to sell its majority stake in GBA Group, a Hamburg-based international life science and laboratory analytics provider, to Bridgepoint. Ardian has supported GBA since 2021.