Amundi has entered into exclusive negotiations with Société Générale for the acquisition of Lyxor for a total cash consideration of €825m, or €755m excluding excess capital, Amundi announced on its website on Wednesday.
The acquisition of Lyxor would make Amundi the European leader in ETFs, with combined assets under management of €124bn and a 14% market share in Europe. The news comes just a day after Reuters and Bloomberg reported Amundi was ahead in the race to buy Lyxor. Amundi’s eventual bid is significantly higher, however, than the €600m estimate by Bloomberg, suggesting a bidding war has been going on.
Amundi said the acquisition of Lyxor ‘would benefit from strong levers to accelerate its development on the fast-growing ETF segment, while complementing its offering in active management, in particular in liquid alternative assets and advisory solutions.’ Lyxor currently is the third-largest ETF player in Europe with €77bn in assets under management. Its acquisition by Amundi means the former will take the second place in the European ETF market, which is currently occupied by DWS xTrackers, behind iShares.
The transaction is expected to be completed by February 2022, subject to receiving the required regulatory and anti-trust approvals.