A few months ago, the Economist published a story, about the so-called European BlackRock, and about how Amundi was on a great path to major success. Back then, which was in April 2021, the markets were reacting to Valérie Baudson’s promotion to the company’s CEO. This reaction was optimistic, and it keeps on going up to this day.
Back then, Amundi had a ‘little’ less AuM (Assets under Management) than BlackRock. In April, the European company has something around $2 trillion of it, while BlackRock managed $8.7 trillion. Back then, there was one question being put – will Amundi be even able to catch up with the giants?
Major focus of Amundi was being put to their Amundi Tech Division, which is managed (with major successes) by Guillaume Lesage, who is also the Chief Operating Officer of the company in Paris. Their product is touted to be even more useful than Aladdin technology that was introduced by BlackRock.
Amundi published its results for H1 and Q2 2021
Well, the recent news show that Amundi has been going strong this year (so far). Their (newly appointed) CEO, Valérie Baudson, has summarized some of their takeaways in the Q2 (second quarter) of the year.
She stressed how her company has posted impressive operating and financial performance in the second quarter of the year 2021. It was all driven by an impressive momentum on all the lines of their businesses, and MLT assets ‘buoyant inflows’ in particular. The net income growth was also amplified by the market environment that Baudson called ‘very favourable’.
The CEO stressed how their recent initiatives, such as the Banco Sabadell partnership, or the joint venture of Amundi Technology and Bank of China, have finally started to bear fruits. The new growth driver, as she put it, is the Lyxor acquisition. Its integration was back then actively prepared.
The strong performances, as the Amundi’s CEO believes, have proven their development strategy to be relevant. She finished her speech by adding that their group in fact has all the strengths that are needed to remain on the growth and profit trajectory
And when it comes to the numbers in Amundi’s summary, it gets even better. On 30 June they had €1,794 billion of assets, which is in fact a 12.7% growth in a year, and a 2.2% growth since March this year. Really impressive.
Amundi is collecting the fruits of their meticulous planning
There will surely be a lot of curiosity around how they actually managed to steer on the market. The group’s growth was heavily bolstered by the launches of some initiatives back in 2020, and only months later they already seem to be paying off. These are:
– The successful partnership and integration with Banco Sabadell;
– The start of the Wealth Management subsidiary with China’s fourth-biggest bank – the Bank of China;
– Excelling the level and development of Amundi Technology.
Amundi Group is also investing really responsibly
The company has been heavily involved with ESG action plan. Thus, their operations and strategies have been revolving around it, and are completely in line with sustainable development frameworks:
- Their ESG assets were worth €798 billion on 30 June 2021. It is a big increase when compared to the 31 December 2020, when their ESG AuM were worth ’only’ €368 billion. They achieved it by maintaining their ESG-driven ideas and incorporating the ESG criteria into all the management processes.
- 700 open-ended funds, dedicated mandates, funds which currently represent more than €680 billion in assets under management (in March 2021 it was €450 billion), are all in line with European SFDR (Sustainable Disclosure Regulation). This makes Amundi the sole leader in the said area.
Is there a ceiling for them? How could Amundi further influence the ESG development in Europe?
If you want to get to know Amundi better, and read a comprehensive and detailed piece about it, you should definitely join Disruption Banking. After you click the following link, you will access a great piece by Andy Samu, who meticulously analyses the case of new European giants: https://disruptionbanking.com/2021/07/30/good-results-for-amundi-is-good-news-for-europe/.
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