Italy's Generali and France's BPCE said on Tuesday they had taken the first step towards creating Europe's largest asset manager by revenue as the industry bets on size to protect profit margins. The

Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. (Generali) and BPCE announced on January 21 that they have signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create a joint venture between their respective asset management operations Generali Investments Holding (GIH) and Natixis Investment Managers (Natixis IM).

The combined entity will have equal ownership, with each party holding 50% and sharing governance and control.

Generali and the owner of France’s Natixis Investment Managers agreed to jointly create a European asset manager overlooking $1.979 trillion.

Generali and Natixis are planning to merge to create the ninth-largest investment manager in the world by assets under management, the companies said Tuesday.

With €1.9tn in AUM, the joint venture would allow the pair to expand globally and speed up a push into private markets.

The board of Italy's top insurer Generali has approved a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that paves the way for an asset management deal with BPCE's Natixis Investment Managers to crate a European champion,

MILAN (Reuters) -Generali and France's BPCE said on Tuesday they had signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) to combine their asset management operations aiming to create Europe's largest player by revenues.