Amundi to buy 10% of Britain's ICG in private markets push

By Mathieu Rosemain

PARIS (Reuters) -Amundi is buying a 9.9% stake in London‑listed Intermediate Capital Group to expand in private markets under its new three‑year strategic plan, Europe's largest asset manager said on Tuesday.

The purchase price was not disclosed but based on ICG's market capitalisation of about 5.5 billion pounds ($7.24 billion) on Monday, the stake would be worth around 550 million pounds and make Amundi the British company's largest shareholder.

European asset managers are seeking greater scale to compete with U.S. giants including BlackRock <BLK.N> and State Street's investment arm and to diversify into fast‑growing and higher-fee alternative asset classes such as private debt and infrastructure.

Amundi, majority-owned by French lender Credit Agricole, has struggled to lift it share price amid concerns about competition and doubts about the future of a key distribution agreement with Italian bank UniCredit. Its stock is down 2% in the last five years.

Amundi will first buy 4.9% of ICG's share capital on the market, before ICG issues new non‑voting shares equal to 5% of its capital to Amundi and simultaneously repurchases an equivalent amount of its own shares to avoid dilution, Chief Financial Officer Nicolas Calcoen told reporters.

ICG, one of London's oldest alternative asset managers founded in 1989, managed $123 billion of assets at end-June.

The deal also includes a 10‑year agreement under which Amundi will be the exclusive global wealth management distributor for ICG's evergreen and certain other products, with plans to launch new private equity secondaries and private debt funds next year.

ASIA IS CENTRAL TO AMUNDI'S GROWTH

The push into private assets is one of six priorities Amundi announced on Tuesday in its "Invest for the future" 2025‑2028 plan, which puts Asia as a central growth engine.

The group, which manages 2.3 trillion euros of assets, is targeting more than 300 billion euros of cumulative net inflows in 2026‑28, half from Asia alone.

"Today, compared with Europe, Asia really represents 50% of our inflows," Chief Executive Valerie Baudson told reporters.

Amundi also pledged to pay shareholders at least 65% of its net profits over 2025‑28, and said it planned a 2026 share buyback to return excess capital left over from the prior cycle.

UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel said last week the relationship with Amundi, set to expire in July 2027, would continue past 2027 only if benefits are mutual.

Amundi said its 7‑euro earnings‑per‑share target for 2028 includes "all market, forex and UniCredit distribution agreement scenarios."

($1 = 0.7598 pounds)

(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes)