Amundi CEO Valerie Baudson has said the asset manager is on the hunt for new deals after completing the integration of its French rival Lyxor in just nine months.
Speaking to analysts on a financial results call earlier this month, Baudson said the group had the opportunity to “look closely at everything for sale” after reporting €1.2bn surplus capital in 2022.
It comes as the group announced its completed the integration of Lyxor, which it purchased for €825m in January, in less than nine months while achieving one-third of its expected €60m cost synergies from the deal.
“On the M&A we have the opportunity to look at close to everything which is for sale,” Baudson said. “We have three main focuses, the first one is to make sure that any acquisition is actually accelerating our organic growth, which is always the priority.
“It could be a question of developing more quickly in some countries – why not in Asia? It could be about developing some expertise as was the case with Lyxor.
“It could be developing a new network as was the case with Sabadell, it could be in technology and services as well as it is a full part of our strategy.”
Baudson added any deal would be subject to two main financial conditions, a return on investment of 10% and an assurance the deal is properly executed following the acquisition.
“A deal is a deal, but the most important thing is then to integrate properly, which is the hard work, and it will always be an important consideration on my side,” she added.
The group said its passive arm recorded €13.8bn inflows over the year due to the “benefit from business synergies with Lyxor” and the setup of its Irish platform ICAV “to develop its global and US equity products”.
Amundi started domiciling new ETFs in Ireland in May in a bid to capitalise on Ireland’s tax treaties with other countries, particularly the US.
Furthermore, Amundi said it has turned 27% of its ETF range into ESG ETFs as part of its 40% target by 2025.
Looking ahead, Bausdon said the ETFs trend to fixed income will continue throughout 2023 but added Europe will also see strong inflows.
“On the ETF side, the flows in 2022 were very much directed to US markets, for obvious reasons. Of course, there will be a trend to fixed income in 2023 but there will also be a strong trend to Europe in 2023, just to rebalance, and we are starting to see the first flows,” she said.
“Amundi can benefit from that. On the European side, we have the set up in fixed income, less in the American ones.”
The firm continues to merge the Lyxor ETF range with its Amundi counterparts as its seeks “economies of scale”.
Earlier this month, the group expanded its climate transition benchmark (CTB) range with European small-cap and Pacific equity ETFs following a fresh round of Lyxor mergers.
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