French banking major Société Générale (Socgen) is said to be in talks with asset managers Amundi and State Street to sell its fund business Lyxor, as per sources. The two frontrunners emerged after Germany’s DWS and US firm Northern Trust dropped out. Amundi and State Street are expected to be €400-500mn, which is about half of the €1bn Socgen was initially targeting. Lyxor had assets under management and advisory of €164.4bn as of last month and is Europe’s third largest ETF provider. One of the sources familiar with the matter said, “It’s a tricky carve-out and it will take time before the unit can be disentangled from the rest of the bank.” Lyxor is a natural fit for Amundi, which is Europe’s largest asset manager with an AUM of €1.7tn as on 2020-end. For State Street on the other hand, the deal would help the company increase its presence in Europe.
Socgen’s USD 6.75% perps are currently trading at 111.23 with a yield to call of 4.84%.
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