Cleary Gottlieb represented Amundi, the leading European asset manager, in its €1.7 billion initial public offering, which priced on November 11, 2015 and closed on November 13, 2015. The transaction represents the largest IPO in France in more than 10 years, since Gaz de France was floated (a transaction in which Cleary Gottlieb also acted as counsel to the issuer). Cleary Gottlieb also represented Amundi’s principal shareholder, Crédit Agricole.
The IPO consisted of a secondary offering of 33,358,336 existing shares by Société Générale, representing its entire 20% interest in Amundi. Crédit Agricole also granted an over-allotment option to the managers, led by Crédit Agricole, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Société Générale. The over-allotment option was exercised on November 24, 2015. Amundi’s shares have been listed on Compartiment A of Euronext Paris. The offering included a French public offer and an international offer to institutional investors, including a Rule 144A placement in the United States.
Concurrently with the offering, Crédit Agricole sold a 2% interest in Amundi to an affiliate of Agricultural Bank of China for approximately €150 million in a privately negotiated transaction. Following this sale and the exercise of the over-allotment option, Crédit Agricole holds approximately 76% of Amundi’s shares.
Amundi is the leading European asset manager and among the top ten asset managers worldwide, with €952 billion of assets under management as of September 30, 2015. It was created in 2010 through the combination of the asset management affiliates of the Crédit Agricole and Société Générale groups. Amundi provides investment solutions (funds, discretionary management, advisory services) to retail clients of the Crédit Agricole and Société Générale group networks, as well as clients of partners, joint-ventures and distributors worldwide. It also provides institutional management and advisory services to sovereigns, pension funds and insurers worldwide, as well as treasury management and employee savings management for corporate clients in Europe. Amundi has a presence in 30 countries across 5 continents, developed through a combination of organic growth, acquisitions and long-term partnerships.