Corporate Amundi creates dedicated Equity Capital Markets Desk

Newly created ECM desk aims at strengthening ties with banks’ capital markets teams and aims to ensure investors can benefit from Europe’s top equity investment opportunities

Amundi, the leading European asset manager, today announces the creation of its first ECM desk, with the aim of providing investors with first-class access to Europe’s equity raising operations, as European companies are poised to increasingly tap equity markets for their financing needs in the coming years.

Headed by Luc Mouzon and leveraging on Amundi’s extended equity research teams and on the strength of its various investment platforms as the largest European asset manager[1], the ECM desk will act as an intermediary between banks’ capital markets operations and Amundi’s portfolio management teams. The newly created desk will aim to help banks gauge investor appetite for upcoming equity issuances, including in particular IPOs as well as accelerated book buildings and the placement of institutional shares, in a drive to allow clients to take part in Europe’s top equity investment opportunities.

The setting up of an ECM desk will allow Amundi to decide what role it wants to play in any upcoming IPO or equity issuance operation (cornerstone investor, anchor investor or standard investor) and potentially to increase its chances of success, as associating the name of a renowned investor to the process typically bolsters confidence in the offering. Because of its scale in the European investment industry, the depth of its expertise and the size of its investment and portfolio management teams, we believe that Amundi is ideally placed to provide this service and thus to contribute to reinforcing Europe’s attractiveness as a key marketplace for IPOs and equity offerings.