Survival of the fittest

21 September 2020 By Christopher Thompson Follow @CGAThompson

The French bank may sell its Lyxor unit, which manages index-tracking exchange-traded funds. That could give CEO Frederic Oudea over 1 bln euros to absorb Covid-19 losses. Brutal fee pressure and BlackRock’s dominance mean punier rivals will need to scale up or get out too.

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Société Générale is preparing to launch the sale of its asset management arm Lyxor as the French lender seeks to shore up its finances, Reuters reported on Sept. 20, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

France's third-biggest bank has hired Citigroup to oversee the sale, which is expected to kick off in the fourth quarter, the sources added.

SocGen and Citi declined to comment.

Lyxor had about 132 billion euros ($156 billion) of assets under management at the end of June, with exchanged-traded funds representing almost half of its operations. It ranks as Europe's third-largest ETF provider, according to Morningstar data.

SocGen shares declined 4.1% to 12.11 euros by 1409 GMT on Sept. 21.

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