Our monthly “Legal Ease” column looks at M&A activity in the funds sector which Gavin Weir, a partner with White & Case, expects to accelerate.
Wags have predicted consolidation fever in the asset management space for a good half-decade, but few seem to have looked back at whether history followed the tarot cards.
History shows that the Great Asset Management Shakeout has not materialised… or hadn’t, until recently. Consolidation-driven M&A activity in asset management has indeed been on the rise, marked by Standard Life’s £3.8 billion marriage to Aberdeen Asset Management and Amundi’s €3.55 billion purchase of Pioneer.
That trend will continue, even accelerate. But the reasons are more varied and complex than many of those who foresaw the trend may realise. Sure, smaller asset managers hope to use M&A to bloom into larger players, enabling them to offer attractive, lower-cost services while maintaining reasonable margins. But there’s more to it than that.
Read the full article here.
This article appeared in the June edition of Funds Europe
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