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Amundi, the largest fund manager in Europe, reported an badet hit of 50 billion euros in the last quarter of last year, showing that it was not immune to increased market volatility which weighs on the investment companies.
But the French fund company, 70% owned by Crédit Agricole and partially listed in Paris, has managed to increase its earnings per share by nearly a fifth over a year, thanks to solid sales in the first half and increased cost savings from its acquisition of Pioneer Investments from Italian bank UniCredit two years ago.
The group's share price rose nearly 5% early in the trading session on Wednesday after the results.
Amundi's badets under management were stable compared to 2018 to reach € 1.4 billion. In the last three months of the year, Amundi recorded a decline of more than 3% of its badets thanks to outflows of 6.5 billion euros and a decrease of 43.7 billion euros due fluctuations in the markets and currencies.
This month, German rival DWS and US group Legg Mason announced a 4% decline in their badets in the last quarter of last year. Meanwhile, BlackRock and Vanguard, the two largest fund managers in the world, revealed last month that the market turmoil in the last quarter had wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars in badets.
Analysts at Deutsche Bank said they were not too worried about Amundi 's decline in badets. "Looking through the details of flow performance, although it is a failure, we find it not too worrying because this flow is mainly motivated by institutional and sovereign factors. [clients], which is low margin and we note that retail [customers] managed to see slight influx, "they wrote.
Yves Perrier, chief executive of Amundi, said the company had done well, given the circumstances, to increase its net profit by 25.5% to 855 million euros. "Despite an unfavorable market environment, Amundi's results have again increased sharply in 2018," he said.
He pointed out the expected increase in savings that Amundi is expected to realize since the Pioneer purchase, up to 175 million euros on an initial target of 150 million. 39; euros. He told the Financial Times that these problems were mainly due to downsizing, the integration of computer systems and the merger of funds and teams.
Mr. Perrier also stressed the importance of the broader geographical coverage of the group to limit the damage caused by unstable markets. Asian badets grew 12.8% last year, while those in Amundi's main markets, France and Italy, declined 3.4% and 4.2%, respectively.
"We built a very diversified company," he added. "The sales momentum remained strong, despite the market context, and benefited from Amundi's strong international presence, particularly in Asia."
This month, Amundi bought a Taiwanese company from Mirae Asset Management, the South Korean group. The terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
Amundi's share price fell by a third in 2018. The group proposed a dividend of 2.90 euros per share, up 17% compared to 2017.
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