France's Amundi to buy Pioneer from UniCredit for £2.9 billion

Thomson Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) - French fund management company Amundi is to buy asset manager Pioneer from Italian bank UniCredit for €3.55 billion (£2.9 billion, $3.75 billion), and will finance the deal with a debt and equity issue.

The deal is one of various disposals being pursued by newly-appointed UniCredit Chief Executive Jean-Pierre Mustier to boost capital levels at the Italian lender, slim it down and make it easier to manage.

Amundi, which is majority owned by French bank Credit Agricole , said the Pioneer deal would result in cost-savings and would boost Amundi's earnings.

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