LONDON – Banco Santander said on Wednesday that it was in talks to potentially combine its asset management arm in a joint venture with Pioneer Global Asset Management, a unit of UniCredit of Italy.
The deal, if consummated, would represent the latest effort by Santander to reshape its asset management operations, which have not been a large contributor to its results.
In 2013, Santander, which is based in Madrid and is one of Europe’s largest banks, entered into an alliance that gave the private equity firms Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic a 50 percent stake in its asset management operations.
The transaction with Pioneer would create an asset manager with 347 billion euros, or about $568.2 billion, in assets under management and operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
“At this time no agreement has been reached as to the potential structure or the terms of that possible transaction,” Santander said in a news release on Wednesday.
Reuters reported on Tuesday that the companies were discussing a transaction in which UniCredit and Santander would each own one-third of the combined business, with the remaining third to be owned by Warburg Pincus and General Atlantic.
At the end of June, Santander Asset Management had about €154.2 billion euros in assets under management, primarily in Spain, Brazil and Mexico.
The asset management business contributed about €80 million in profit to Santander last year, a 27 percent decline from 2012. The bank posted an overall profit of €4.37 billion in 2013.
Pioneer has been part of Milan-based UniCredit since 2000, when it acquired Pioneer Investment of Boston. The business had about €186 million in assets under management as of the end of June.
The unit posted a pretax profit of €193 million in 2013, down 3 percent from 2012. Unicredit posted a pretax loss of €4.89 billion last year.