Goldman Sachs ING

Goldman Sachs Asset Management, the asset management arm of the US financial giant, announced Thursday morning that it is putting 1.7 billion euros on the table for the acquisition of NN Investment Partners.

NN Investment Partners is the fund arm of Dutch insurance company NN Group

It manages 300 billion euros of client assets. In Belgium, the company is best known for being the manager of Star Fund, one of the largest retirement savings funds in the country. It manages around 4.9 billion euros and is distributed by ING Belgium and Belfius.

Now that NN Group has sold its fund arm, Goldman Sachs will eventually manage this famous fund. The $1 billion deal should be completed in 2022. NN Investment Partners, whose head office is located in The Hague, also has a branch in Marnixlaan in Brussels. According to the annual report for 2020, 23 people work there. .

NN Group put its financial division up for sale last spring. The Dutch have been under pressure from shareholders for some time to simplify their activities further. Selling NN Investment Partners fulfills this requirement.

There was no lack of interest in the Dutch fund branch. German asset manager DWS, Swiss UBS and Italian and German insurers Generali and Allianz were also mentioned as potential buyers.

Goldman Sachs won the battle. The American group expects to close the deal in 2022 and enter into a partnership where it will continue to provide asset management services to NN Group over the next 10 years.

The $1 billion deal once again highlights the wave of mergers and acquisitions in the European fund industry. The unstoppable progress of passive investing and the emergence of larger international players are putting pressure on asset managers’ profit margins. The scale is becoming increasingly important. Strategic choices are required.

For this reason, the French company Amundi bought Lyxor, a subsidiary of the Société Générale banking group, which specializes in listed investment funds. Insurance group Athora, known here as the acquirer of Generali Belgium, decided this year to sell its asset management subsidiary Actiam.