Exclusive-Amundi moves to cut costs in Italy with future of Unicredit deal in doubt

Amundi's Cost-Cutting Strategy in Italy Raises Unicredit Deal Concerns

By Valentina Za

MILAN (Reuters) -The Italian arm of Amundi, Europe's biggest fund manager, will start discussing with unions steps it wants to adopt by the end of 2025 to shed jobs in the country and cut costs, a document showed on Thursday.

A person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters unions expected the reorganization could lead to a reduction of the local workforce of between around 14%-17%.

Amundi's Italian unit said in a letter to unions seen by Reuters that trends in the sector made it imperative to reduce costs.

A spokesperson for Amundi said the company aimed to save between 30 million and 40 million euros ($45 million) per year from next year and was looking for solutions across all business lines and geographies.

"Amundi continues to invest in growth drivers such as Exchange Traded Funds, Asia, technology, as well as third-party distribution," the spokesperson said.

Italy is the biggest foreign market for Amundi, which in 2017 spent 3.6 billion euros to buy the fund business of UniCredit, clinching a distribution deal with Italy's second-largest Italian bank. That contract ends in 2027.

UniCredit appeared to put a potential renewal on the table when CEO Andrea Orcel announced a bid for smaller peer Banco BPM and said he wanted to sit down with investors in the takeover target to work out solutions of mutual satisfaction.

Amundi is 68.7% owned by France's Credit Agricole which is also the biggest investor in Banco BPM.

After Orcel's words, however, Credit Agricole has further increased its Banco BPM stake, leading to a stalemate between the French bank and UniCredit.

Italy is Credit Agricole's largest foreign market.

Amundi CEO Valerie Baudson said last month that UniCredit accounted for 100 billion euros of its assets under management (AUM) out of a total of more than 2.25 trillion euros.

Italy as a whole accounted for 198 billion euros of AUM at the end of March.

($1 = 0.8940 euros)

(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Gavin Jones)