By David French and Pamela Barbaglia
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Societe Generale (PA:SOGN) is gearing up to launch the sale of its asset management arm Lyxor as the French lender seeks to shore up its finances after two consecutive quarterly losses, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
France's third-biggest bank has hired Citigroup (N:C) to oversee the sale, which is expected to kick off in the fourth quarter, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the matter is confidential.
Societe Generale and Citi declined to comment.
Lyxor had about 132 billion euros ($156 billion) of assets under management at the end of June, with exchanged-traded funds (ETF) representing almost half of its operations. It ranks as Europe's third largest ETF provider.
The business could be valued at about $1 billion, one of the sources said, adding that interested parties have recently been contacted as the sale is about to kick off.
It will be aimed at bidders in Europe and United States, including French asset manager Amundi (PA:AMUN) and German rival DWS (DE:DWSG), one of sources said, while cautioning that no deal was certain.
"It's all been prepared and is ready to start, but the board has yet to sign it off," the source said.
The unit posted a 21.6% decline in revenue to 40 million euros in the second quarter due to challenging market conditions and the fallout from the coronavirus crisis.
Societe Generale's boss Frederic Oudea is trying to strengthen the bank's capital ratio and may also explore strategic options for its UK wealth management unit, Kleinwort Hambros, another source said.
As part of an asset disposal programme first launched in 2018, Societe Generale has parted ways with assets in Eastern Europe and last year agreed to sell its Nordics-based SG Finans division to Nordea Bank (HE:NDAFI) for 575 million euros.
The bank said it would sell or close business lines that have not reached critical mass or do not generate synergies.