UniCredit, Santander Terminate Asset Management Units Merger -- Update
July 27 2016 - 8:01AM
Dow Jones News
By Deborah Ball
MILAN-- UniCredit SpA said Wednesday that it has agreed with
Spain's Banco Santander SA to terminate an agreement struck last
year to merge its asset management units.
The Italian bank said that due to regulatory problems, it was
impossible to find a "workable solution within a reasonable time
horizon."
Last year, UniCredit and Santander reached a preliminary
agreement to merge its asset-management unit Pioneer with that of
the Spanish bank.
In Wednesday's statement, UniCredit said that it may now
consider an initial public offering of Pioneer.
The deal was meant to create a new group, boasting an enterprise
value of around EUR5.5 billion ($6 billion) and EUR400 billion in
assets under management. It was also meant to help UniCredit reduce
head count, a key goal in a bank that in the midst of a sweeping
cost-cutting campaign.
Jean Pierre Mustier, UniCredit's new chief executive, will
present a new strategic plan by year's end aimed at improving the
bank's profitability.
Santander Chief Executive José Antonio Álvarez said Wednesday
during an earnings presentation that the deal would have provided
scale to the lenders' asset managers and allowed them to offer a
wider range of products to clients. Now that the deal has fallen
through, he said, Santander will focus on improving its offering
for clients.
Write to Deborah Ball at deborah.ball@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 27, 2016 07:46 ET (11:46 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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