Morning to all. I hope that you are hearing us well with this new setup. I'm Cyril Meilland, the head of investor relations for Amundi, and I'm here with Valérie Baudson, our CEO, and Nicolas Calcoen, who will be presenting the new partnership we announced, sorry, the non-binding memorandum of understanding we signed with Victory Capital to set up a strategic partnership. Valérie, the floor is yours.
Yeah. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for connecting to this conference call at such short notice, but the call is definitely worth the effort. So, as Cyril was telling you, this is not sure.
Okay, sorry for this technical glitch. Again, welcome to this conference call. I'm Cyril Meilland, the head of investor relations, and I'm with Valérie Baudson, our CEO, and Nicolas Calcoen, our deputy CEO, to present this non-binding memorandum of understanding with Victory Capital to establish a partnership with Amundi. Valérie, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Cyril. I'm sorry for that. So I was telling you that, I must insist it is a non-binding MOU, subject to the usual conditions, including, of course, negotiations of definitive agreements, due diligence, and regulatory approval, but we are very confident that this deal will be signed. So, as you have seen, the project is to combine Amundi US into Victory Capital, with Amundi Group becoming a strategic shareholder of Victory Capital with a stake of 26.1%, and to establish a long-term, reciprocal, and exclusive distribution agreement between Amundi Group and Victory. This operation is a unique opportunity to strengthen our presence in the U.S., fully in line with our strategy in this large country and savings pool. With this deal, we create a strong, very comprehensive U.S. investment platform with large distribution capability in which Amundi would have a 26.1% stake.
Amundi would also have access to a broader set of high-performing U.S. strategy. More than two-thirds of the combined funds and ETFs are four or five-star rated. This access is secured in the long run thanks to the reciprocal distribution agreements. As a result, our clients across the world would therefore take advantage of an enhanced investment platform. Victory is the right partner for this deal. I will elaborate on this later, but Victory Capital is a well-respected U.S. asset manager, diversified, fast-growing, thanks in particular to a proven and very strong track record in integrating attractive investment platforms. After this integration, the new entity would manage close to $280 billion across a wide range of asset classes, strategies, formats for a very large client base. This deal will therefore create a lot of value for our clients, but also, of course, for Amundi shareholders.
In addition to its promising organic growth prospects, the new combined entity has already identified EUR 100 million of cost synergies achievable within two years that would boost its profitability. As a consequence, the contribution from the U.S. to Amundi's net income will increase in a significant way. All this without any cash disbursement, any issue of new shares for Amundi, and so the deal will be materially accretive on Amundi earnings per share, again, with no capital allocation. Let me now turn to the two businesses we propose to combine to create this strong U.S. asset manager, starting with Amundi US. As a reminder, our team manages roughly $100 billion in U.S. strategy, two-thirds on behalf of U.S. clients, and one-third on behalf of clients in the rest of the world.
As you can see on the chart, this business is well-diversified across asset classes, with roughly half in equities and multi-assets, and half in fixed income. It is mostly wholesale, serving retail clients, but the institutional business has grown well over the past few years. The roots of this business date back to the early stage, the early ages of asset management in the U.S. In 1928, Pioneer, the company, we acquired in 2017, launched the Pioneer Fund, the second mutual fund ever launched in the U.S. It still exists and is one of the jewels of Amundi's investment franchise. Since 2017, thanks to Amundi's global distribution teams, the assets managed by Amundi US for clients in Europe and Asia have increased rapidly. Now, Amundi US sells its strategy across the world, in the U.S., of course, but also the rest of the world, from Spain to Japan.
Let me now share a few facts on Victory Capital, which explain why they are for us the perfect partner. Victory is headquartered in San Antonio, with 11 other offices across the U.S. Its teams total approximately 500 people. It is a fast-growing asset manager with $175 billion of assets, boasting deep investment expertise and an excellent track record for their investment performances, but also for the integration of the seven investment franchises they have onboarded since 2013. Victory operates via these investment franchises, 11 in addition to the Victory brand, each specialized in a diversified range of expertise from money market to alternatives, with a larger focus compared to Amundi US on equities and multi-assets. They cover the full scope of wrappers, from funds to SMAs, corporate investment trusts, retirement schemes, including ETFs, both active and quantitative.
Victory does operate different brands, but like Amundi, they have a fully integrated and centralized operating and distribution platform, which helps them keep a high level of efficiency. You will notice that their cost-income ratio is similar to Amundi's worldwide. Their distribution is well-balanced between third-party distribution, the institutional segment with more than 400 clients, and they operate a very successful direct channel, offering brokerage services to retail clients directly. It now represents more than a third of their assets, this direct channel. Their business is U.S.-based, selling U.S. strategies to U.S. clients. Only 3% of their assets under management are with clients outside the U.S. And finally, Victory is listed since 2018 on Nasdaq, and you can see on the slide that since then, they have almost tripled their managed assets and quadrupled their adjusted net income. Consequently, their share price has more than tripled.
So a very, very successful partner indeed, and very complementary to our U.S. operations. As I mentioned, the proposed transaction paves the way for Amundi Group and Victory to become long-term partners. When completed, the transaction will include three parts. Amundi will combine Amundi U.S. into Victory Capital. In exchange, Amundi will become a strategic shareholder of Victory with a 26.1% stake via new shares issued by Victory. No cash payment will be involved either way. And finally, a 15-year exclusive reciprocal distribution agreement will be signed. So now I leave the floor to Nicolas, who will provide you with details about the many benefits of the project for our clients and, of course, for our shareholders. And I'll come back for the conclusion. Nicolas?
Thank you, Valérie, and good morning to all. As Valérie explained, the proposed combinations of Amundi US and Victory enable us to pursue two strategic objectives. First, this transaction would expand our access to a larger and very high-quality US investment platform of more than $280 billion for the benefit of all our clients globally. And second, it broadens both partners' respective distribution capabilities. Let's start with the combined investment platform and the broader range of high-performing strategies it will give access to from day one. Indeed, the two entities have very complementary investment capabilities. While Victory has a very strong and diversified equity platform, including in particular, but not exclusively, on small and mid-cap, and also multi-asset alternative and quantitative expertise, Amundi US is well-balanced between equity and fixed income strategies.
Therefore, all clients would benefit from a broad range of strategies across all asset classes, including actively managed fixed income, equity, multi-asset investment strategies, as well as quantitative solutions and clean energy infrastructure assets. To give an idea, the range on both sides would include highly rated blockbusters, including on Victory side, to give a few examples, the five-star US mid-cap equity expertise managed by Sycamore, which has today, in the US format, $18 billion of assets. But also, another example, the actively managed ETF VictoryShares Core Intermediate Bond with $2 billion, also five-star rated. And last example, in the alternative space, the strategies managed by their clean energy franchise, New Energy Capital.
On Amundi's side, I would say the successful blockbuster, the famous Pioneer Fund in U.S. large cap, which is also five-star and gathered $17 billion across its various formats, or the Pioneer Bond Fund, also five-star with $11 billion. So overall, the combined entity can boast two-thirds, even a bit more than two-thirds of its assets in funds and ETFs rated by Morningstar in the four and five-star categories. Amundi clients in Europe and Asia have already invested in the successful strategies of Amundi US. As shown by the AUM gathered by the UCITS format for the different strategies, they will now have access to Victory's high-performance blockbusters. Turning to distribution, the combined entity will have more attractive strategies to sell, but it will also have an enhanced distribution capability to sell them. First of all, it will greatly benefit from the expanded distribution strength in the U.S. market.
Victory Capital covers the full range of, indeed, the full range of US investment formats. Mutual funds, of course, but also actively managed ETFs, and is proposing many of its strategies separately or unified managed accounts, and as well as specific retirement products that are well adapted to today's US market. Furthermore, as Valérie mentioned, they have a direct distribution platform named Victory Capital Invest, which now includes Marketplace, an open architecture brokerage platform for individual investors. Amundi US on this side will strengthen this franchise with its strategies, its clients and sales team, covering the institutional and intermediary segments. As Victory will become the distributor of Amundi's solution in the US, they will be able to promote more widely in the US or non-US investment capabilities and benefit notably from the strong institutional clients base on direct retail platforms.
As we have said, this distribution partnership is expected to be formalized through a long-term, 15-year, exclusive and reciprocal agreement. So clearly, this operation will provide a significant boost to Amundi's growth and will be a compelling proposition for our clients across the world. Last but not least, of course, it will be also a very value-creative deal for our shareholders, with a promising outlook for organic growth, but also cost and revenue synergies. Indeed, the new entity, combining Victory and Amundi US, would post more than $1.2 billion of revenues on approximately $400 million of adjusted net income, based on the full year 2023 figures and before synergies. In addition, the new combined entity has identified annual cost synergies of around $100 billion, achievable within two years after closing of the proposed deal.
This is, of course, for the combined entity at 100%, and we shall take a 26.1% share in these profits via the share of profits in equity accounted subsidiaries in our P&L. In addition to this contribution to our net profit, we expect also revenue synergies from the reciprocal distribution agreements we plan to sign as part of the partnership. They will benefit for part of them to the combined entity and will, again, shall take 26% of them. For another part, they will benefit Amundi directly. These revenue synergies have not been quantified yet, and they are not part of the accretion calculations I will come to. Indeed, if we're excluding revenue synergies, the proposed transaction will result in a very material increase in the contribution of U.S. operations to Amundi's result.
Given Amundi's large size , the accretion will be on our EPS in a low single-digit area, but that still represents EUR 20 million-EUR 30 million added to our adjusted net income. You must keep in mind all this, of course, without any cash payment, which means no additional capital allocated to the US and no reduction in our surplus capital available for other M&A deals. As we said, the transaction is at a memorandum of understanding stage. It remains subject to the successful completion of our negotiation with Victory, to due diligence, and when a definitive agreement is reached, the usual condition, including regulatory approval. This process is already starting today. Therefore, we expect the final binding agreement by the end of the current quarter, end of June, and a closing by year-end.
Now I leave the floor to Amundi, to Valérie, sorry, for a conclusion before you take all your questions.
Thank you. Thank you, Nicolas. So you understood it. To sum up, first of all, I'm convinced that this MOU paves the way for an enduring and mutually beneficial long-term strategic partnership with Amundi U.S. combining into Victory Capital, Amundi becoming a strategic shareholder of Victory Capital, and Victory and Amundi establishing a 15-year global and reciprocal distribution agreement. This deal is fully aligned with our strategy in the U.S., which is to have access to excellent investment strategies for our clients worldwide. With Victory, we found the right partner, and we shall participate in the fast growth of a larger, efficient U.S. asset manager. And finally, the transaction is structured to be value-creative for our clients and for our shareholders. We are now very happy with Nicolas to take your questions.
Thank you, Valérie. Thank you, Nicolas. In order to ask questions, you have to raise your hand, and I will unmute your line so that you can ask your question. And if you have any follow-up, I mean, you just re-raise your hand so that we can have a smooth Q&A session. We'll start with Jacques-Henri. Jacques-Henri, unmute your line. Please unmute yourself whenever you are ready.
Okay. Good morning, everyone. Congratulations for this deal. Question on the impact you're going to have on the strategy of Victory going forward. So you're going to have 2 out of 9 board members. I wanted to know if you have any idea who would be there. Valérie, is it going to be you part of those two, for example? And assuming that obviously you're together for the next 15 years, assuming that Victory decides to actually continue to develop itself, to actually engage into acquisitions, would you be happy to actually help them and support them even financially to do that in order to keep your stake at 26 or even increase it? Thank you very much.
Thank you, Jacques-Henri. Well, on the board members, we have not decided yet, but for sure it will be two members which are part of the top management of Amundi. We have worked for a few months now with David Brown and his excellent team. We have excellent relationships, and I'm absolutely certain that we will go on working on the strategy very smoothly together. For the future, I mean, for the time being, obviously, we are focused on the transaction. We expressed very clearly that we will be a long-term strategic shareholder. We will be the largest shareholder of Victory. Then for the rest, it will, of course, depend on the type of operations they are making. I'm pretty sure that for the time being, they will focus on this one because it's an important one.
Thank you. The next question comes from Mandeep from RBC.
Hey, good morning. Mandeep Jagpal, RBC Capital Markets. Thanks for taking my questions. Just firstly, a follow-up on the first question on M&A. If Amundi were to contribute financially to M&A, would that M&A have to meet Amundi's financial criteria that is set out in the past? And then secondly, on the distribution agreement, how much net flows from non-US strategies could we expect from this exclusive distribution agreement? And what type of products do you think this will be? Thank you.
On the first question, it will be Victory policy. But from what I've seen, what they have done over the recent years, all the deals they have done have been very successful and very value-creating for their shareholders. So I'm sure if at some point other operations are envisaged by Victory, they will be of the same quality. And the second questions, sorry.
On the net flows. Net flows envisioned for non-U.S.
Going forward, we will see. We are working on it. Part of what will be we have, of course, identified a lot of interesting strategies from one side and to the other that can be distributed. We will also take advantage of the coming weeks and months to deep dive in that and define commonly business plans.
We are absolutely convinced that it will improve, of course, the rate of flows towards the US franchise and expertise. As you probably know, especially in Asia, for Asian clients, the size of the assets invested in US franchise is really very important. It will be for sure a boost for our growth.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from Tom Mills from Jefferies.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Congratulations. This seems like a really elegant solution for your US business. I just wanted to ask around Victory's active ETF structuring capabilities. To what extent do you see that being beneficial to the overall ETF franchise that Amundi can allow you to also explore sort of distributing those types of products into your broader client base? Thank you.
Well, that's a very good point. As you know, the active ETF business has really started in the US for a few years now. We see interesting development on that envelope. One of the qualities of Victory is to have developed a very strong product platform, solutions platform, which enables them to offer to their clients their expertise into a lot of formats. And as you know, the formats of this expertise have been moving over the past few years in the US. So it's a big asset, especially this active ETF format. And we will, of course it doesn't change anything on Amundi ETF business for the time being. As you know, the Amundi ETF business, which represents a bit more than EUR 200 billion today, is a UCITS business, so distributed in Europe and in a number of countries in Asia.
We will add, of course, to our distribution capacities the active ETFs that have been developed by Victory in the U.S.
Okay. I don't think we have any more questions unless I'm missing. So, oh, no. Nicolas from Exane.
Hello. Good morning. Just two quick questions on my side. On integration matters and the synergies, could you roughly tell us where are the main sources from the cost synergies and the integration burden of this deal? I guess it doesn't really prevent you from maybe doing further M&A down the road in the coming quarters. Second question is on the D2C platform. Could you elaborate more on what are the capabilities there, the kind of products that are available? In particular, I'm interested if there is an angle for you to commercialize Amundi ETFs on this platform. Thank you very much.
Very, very interesting question again. On the integration and the synergies, so as you understood it, the integration will be handled by Victory. And that's why we are very careful in choosing this partner, making sure that the company we work with has a lot of experience into this kind of integration. And this is definitely the case of Victory. So that's a great asset. They feel very comfortable to achieve the cost synergies we mentioned in the presentation, which are both linked to, of course, scale effect and productivity effect on the staff path, but also on all operational costs, as usual, I would say, in the type of operation we usually do in the asset management industry. It doesn't prevent us at all for any further M&A on our side at Amundi because when the deal will be completed, this integration will be in the hands of Victory.
On our side, all our capacity is completely both financially and workforce, I would say, is completely available for other transactions at Amundi level. Regarding your third question, they have a very interesting D2C platform. And as you understood it, it represents more than one-third of their assets. So it's really significant. They acquired it when they acquired USAA, actually. It was part of this company. It's really a brokerage service, a very open and efficient D2C platform. We could not distribute Amundi ETF today because our ETFs are under UCITS format. So they cannot be I would tend to say that day one, they cannot be distributed as such in the US. But the question is really good. So I will check, obviously, very quickly whether they can be added and what would have to be done to add them to this platform. I keep it. Very good question.
Okay. I don't see any other question. Any second thoughts? Please raise your hand if you have a question. No, it seems that we have been very clear. At least Valérie and Nicolas have been very clear. So if you have any follow-up question, obviously, we are here at the investor relations team to answer them. And in the meantime, have a very good day. Thank you.