Credit Agricole Unit Agrees to buy Italy Wealth Manager Leonardo

(Bloomberg) -- Credit Agricole SA agreed to buy a controlling stake in Italian wealth manager Banca Leonardo and will make an offer for the rest of the company.

Indosuez Wealth Management, a unit of the French bank, agreed to purchase 67.67 percent of Leonardo from a group of shareholders that include Exor SA and Eurazeo SA, Credit Agricole said in a statement on Tuesday without disclosing the price. Leonardo had 5.9 billion euros ($6.84 billion) of assets under management as of June 30.

The purchase is in line with Indosuez’ strategy of making selective acquisitions in its key European markets, Chief Executive Officer Paul de Leusse said in the statement. Italy’s wealth-management sector is expected to grow at 4 percent a year, he said. Indosuez, which has about 112 billion euros under management is also expanding in Asia.

Credit Agricole is also the largest investor in Amundi SA, which bought Pioneer Asset Management from Milan-based UniCredit SpA in a 3.5 billion euro deal.

The deal is expected to be finalized in the first half of next year, subject to regulatory approval. The impact on Credit Agricole’s CET1 capital ration will be less than 5 basis points, the company said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ross Larsen in Rome at rlarsen2@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Neil Callanan at ncallanan@bloomberg.net, Kevin Costelloe

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