Global Custodian Editor-in-Chief Dominic Hobson spoke with Alain Closier, global head of Societe Generale, about this announcement. To hear highlights of the interview, click here to listen to the latest GlobalCustodian.com podcast.
Societe Generale Securities Services (SGSS) has signed a purchase agreement with Pioneer Investments, a subsidiary of Pioneer Global Asset Management, to acquire its fund administration and middle and back office services in Germany.
Closing of the deal is subject to the approval of regulatory authorities and is expected not later than year-end.
The activities acquired by SGSS include fund administration services for Pioneer Investments and other German fund managers, and middle-office services for Pioneer Investments, based in Munich. The related funds under administration amount to €55 billion.
The acquisition gives SGSS a total of nearly €440 billion of assets under administration. Around 170 employees from Pioneer Investments will join SGSS in Germany.
The announcement of the deal between SGSS and Pioneer Investments, the asset management subsidiary of the UniCredit Group, comes less than a year after SGSS completed the purchase of UniCredit’s securities services in Italy, Luxembourg and Ireland.
“The quality of the services provided by SGSS within our partnership agreement in October last year has convinced us that we made the right decision to outsource our fund administration and agent services,” says Angelo Forloni, global COO of PGAM. “I am confident that the outcome will be the same for our activities in Germany.”
Alain Closier, global head of SGSS, adds: “This new deal is a good example of the relation that we have been able to develop with Pioneer Investments in Europe and is a tribute to the professionalism of the teams who are already servicing Pioneer Investments in Luxembourg, Ireland and Italy.”