European giants Amundi and BNP Paribas are among the number of ETF issuers eyeing up a bid for the €150bn Lyxor, three sources have said.
According to Reuters, US bank JP Morgan, State Street and Deutsche Bank are also in the hunt for the Société Générale-owned French asset manager.
The news comes two months after it was revealed SocGen was preparing to sell-off Lyxor and had hired Citigroup to oversee the sale.
The sources have said the sale is expected to be worth between €500m and €700m with Amundi the seemingly natural buyer for the arm.
“SocGen is aware of Amundi’s interest but they are looking to run a narrow auction to secure the highest price,” one of the sources told Reuters.
If Amundi made the acquisition it would propel them to number two in Europe’s ETF rankings by some distance ahead of DWS which is currently second.
Lyxor is third behind BlackRock and DWS with over €70bn ETF assets under management (AUM).
The potential sale comes just under a year afterLyxor completed the integration ofCommerzbank’s asset management activities including its €8.6bn ComStage ETF range.
Société Générale acquiredthe ETF business in July 2018enabling Lyxor to challenge DWS to become Europe’s second-largest ETF issuer.
