Axa has launched the sale of its private equity, an assignment following the withdrawal of almost general banking and insurance sector made a not very attractive for future Solvency II prudential standards.
Two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday that the bank Credit Suisse had been mandated to look after the sale that occurs in the middle of financial turmoil.
"It's like any new process," said one of them, noting that the figure of one billion sterling raised in the morning by the British news channel SkyNews seemed high.
Many financial institutions are now trying to strengthen their balance sheets in order to reassure the markets and prove they can cope with the debt crisis in the euro area.
"It's not their core business or strategic asset," said one London analyst, who is likely Axa uses the proceeds from this sale to strengthen its capital rather than make acquisitions.
The impact of this withdrawal should be limited, because private equity is not an activity that consumes a lot of capital.
Management companies such as Axa Private Equity investing in unlisted companies for several years but do not with their own capital.They invest on behalf of institutional investors or wealthy families.
But even if Axa does not change his deep financial profile of the transaction, the sale could help convince its shareholders of its determination to go after refocusing.While the future of the subsidiary was never considered a major issue.
Reconquest
Axa has launched an operation in June "conquest" with its investors with the presentation of a strategic plan in 2015 whereby it has redeployed some of its capital to emerging markets and reduce its costs in mature markets.
The title Axa lost 33% since the beginning of the year, while the European sector index limit its losses to 27%.
Axa declined to comment on Friday to become its subsidiary AXA Private Equity which manages $ 28 billion in assets and was one of the most dynamic in its sector in France this year.
In particular, it acquired in May in tandem with Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD & R) and the Deposit Quebec electrical engineering group Spie for 2.1 billion euros.
Axa PE also announced the acquisition in August at HSH Nordbank
the bulk of a portfolio of 620 million euros, having already completed in June the acquisition of a portfolio of Citigroup for $ 1.7 billion (1.17 billion euros) and another Barclays for 740 million dollars.
Main engine of recovery of M & A in 2011, private equity, however, shows signs of weakness in France.
The closing of the market "high yield", these high-yield bonds that fund LBOs (financial arrangements based on significant debt leverage) points to a new lean times for the sector.