By Amy-Jo Crowley, Alexander Hübner, Andres Gonzalez and Anousha Sakoui

LONDON (Reuters) – Allianz is weighing options for its Allianz Global Investors unit, including a possible merger or partial sale of the division, four people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, in a move that would give the business greater scale.

AllianzGI, which oversees 555 billion euros ($560 billion) of assets according to its website, could be valued at more than 4 billion euros, including debt, one of people said.

Allianz could consider giving up control in such a move, that person and a second one said. The people were speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter was private.

It is one of Europe’s biggest insurers and also owns asset manager Pimco. The Pimco business is not part of the discussions, according to the sources.

A spokesperson for Allianz declined to comment.

The considerations come on the heels of BNP Paribas’ decision to buy AXA Investment Managers for more than 5 billion euros, a transaction that bankers expected would spur more dealmaking. Credit Agricole-owned Amundi was also vying for the unit, Reuters reported.

Amundi and Germany’s DWS would be logical candidates for any deal, one of the people and a fifth one said. Amundi and DWS declined to comment. AllianzGI sold its U.S. division to investment manager Voya after the unit pleaded guilty to fraud and paid a $6 billion settlement with U.S. authorities in 2022.

In August, the overall Allianz group posted better than expected second quarter net profit and said it was on track to meet its full year target.

Over the past decade, Allianz has outperformed some its main competitors and Germany’s main stock index. In the first half of 2024, Allianz reported net inflows of 48 billion euros of client funds into its asset management business, of which only a small fraction went into AllianzGI, at around 3 billion euros.

($1 = 0.9263 euros)

(This story has been refiled to clarify the source in paragraph 7)

(Reporting by Amy-Jo Crowley, Alexander Huebner, Andres Gonzales and Anousha Sakoui. Additional reporting Emma-Victoria Farr, David French, Tom Sims and Mathieu Rosemain. Editing by Elisa Martinuzzi, Elaine Hardcastle)