Italy’s Banca Etica, a cooperative bank specialising in ‘ethical finance’, is expanding its responsible investment business as it takes over the asset management company IMPact SGR, pushing its assets under management to more than €10bn.

The bank has bought a 70% stake in IMPact SGR, which also provides fund management services for institutional clients, as part of a strategic plan to expand the group’s business in the wealth and asset management industries, and to consolidate its position in the sustainable investing market, it said in a statement.

Founded in 2018 by Fausto Artoni, Gherardo Spinola and Stefano Mach, former fund managers at asset management group Azimut, IMPact SGR has €3.5bn in assets under management.

As part of a strategic realignment, Banca Etica is stripping current external asset manager Anima of its mandate to manage the mutual funds of Etica SGR, the bank’s asset management arm with €7.4bn in total assets, which exclusively offers sustainable and responsible mutual funds labelled as Article 8 and 9 of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), to more than 400 clients.

IMPact SGR is now responsible for managing the funds previously run by Anima, with a mission to steer capital towards businesses capable of generating a net positive impact for people and the environment, the bank said.

With the acquisition of IMPAct SGR, Banca Etica is creating an in-house fund management business dedicated to ethical finance, strengthening its independence from other financial operators by exploiting synergies between Etica SGR and IMPact SGR, it said.

“Etica SGR will benefit from synergies with a dedicated asset manager [and] in line with the group’s mission, in order to enhance the offer of ethical finance products, open up to new markets and be even closer to the needs of savers and all stakeholders,” said Anna Fasano, president of Banca Etica.

With the takeover of IMPact SGR, Banca Etica enters a “new phase, becoming a stronger and more complete financial group”, she added.

Fausto Artoni, president and co-founder of IMPact SGR, said: “The synergies with Etica SGR will lead to substantial growth in the ability to generate internal research on sustainability, growth of the management team and product innovation in compliance and in continuity with the group’s rigorous investment selection rules.”

The latest digital edition of IPE’s magazine is now available

 

Luigi is IPE's Berlin-based DACH correspondent. His coverage includes regulation and the latest pensions and investments trends, and, being a native Italian, he also covers Italy’s pensions market. He has reported from Italy and Germany on international politics and business for European and US publications including USA Today, Bloomberg BNA and for the investigative magazine L’Espresso. He was previously Germany correspondent for Mergermarket covering M&A.View full Profile

More from Luigi Serenelli

Topics