Interview with Olivier CARCY, CEO of Indosuez Europe, SCO Crédit Agricole Group in Luxembourg

“Indosuez’s group moves up a category”

Indosuez Wealth Management, a subsidiary of Crédit Agricole S.A, finalized the acquisition of Degroof Petercam in June 2024, becoming the majority shareholder alongside its historical shareholder, CLdN Cobelfret. Olivier CARCY, Chief Executive Officer of Indosuez in Europe, headquartered in Luxembourg, and Senior Country Officer for the Crédit Agricole Group in Luxembourg, explains the benefits of this acquisition.

In December 2022, you became Chief Executif Officer of Indosuez in Europe, based in Luxembourg, and Senior Country Officer for the Crédit Agricole Group in Luxembourg. Could you present your group in a few words?

Indosuez is a major player in wealth management and a subsidiary of the Crédit Agricole Group, 9th world bank and 1st French retail bank, benefiting from very strong shareholder stability as a mutual bank and recognised financial solidity. These are two very important elements for all our customers.

For over 150 years, Indosuez Wealth Management has been helping major private clients, families and professional entrepreneurs to manage their private and professional wealth.
We have a very broad and comprehensive offer that has been strengthened with the acquisition, now finalised since 3 June, of one of the Belgian leaders in the private bank, Degroof Petercam.
We also draw on the expertise of Crédit Agricole Group and some of its entities such as Crédit Agricole Assurances, Amundi and Crédit Agricole CIB to meet our clients' expanded needs.

Indosuez Group operates in 16 regions, mainly Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.µFrom Luxembourg, Indosuez assists its European customers through its network of branches based in Spain, Italy, Portugal and Belgium via Degroof Petercam.
Luxembourg is an important place for the Crédit Agricole Group, which has been presen there for more than 100 years, with more than 3000 employees.

Indosuez Wealth Management completed on 3 June 2024 the acquisition of a majority stake in the private and investment bank Degroof Petercam. Why bought Degroof Petercam?

It is a beautiful project that creates a European leader in wealth management. The merger is one of the most significant transactions in the sector in the past 10 years in Europe. With more than 200 billion assets under management and 4500 employees, the Indosuez Group changes its category. We are strengthening our presence in Europe, particularly in Belgium, a dynamic market that includes many entrepreneurs as well as many private and professional investors. Belgium is becoming our biggest market.

This acquisition opens a door for the Crédit Agricole Group in northern Europe, and more precisely in Benelux. We expect to see many synergies with Crédit Agricole Group entities, for example with certain Regional Banks.

What will this deal concretely bring to your customers?

Our strategy is to meet all our clients' needs from a full range of solutions and services.

With this operation, they will benefit from an enhanced value proposition and a continuum of services based on the complementarity of the expertise of the two entities: On the one hand, the consulting activities to entrepreneurs of Degroof Petercam, financial management advisory and fund offers, including ESG, its fund servicing capacities; on the other hand, the extended offer of services of Indosuez Wealth Management particularly in structured products, private equity, real estate, as well as access to our financing capacity and our international network.

Our offer including advisory, financing, investment solutions, fund servicing, technological and banking solutions is among the most comprehensive in the market. We can finance investment and development projects for our clients by leveraging, where appropriate, all of the Group's expertise, which is a real differentiating factor.

Finally, we share an ESG approach firmly embedded in our offerings with Degroof Petercam. Today, 91% of our funds rank between category 8 and 9. It is a competitive advantage that has existed at Degroof Petercam for more than twenty years.

And in Luxembourg, concretely. What will be the impact of this agreement?

Our clientele, made up of entrepreneurs and families, is fairly close to that of Degroof Petercam. The potential for development is very significant as this will enable us to offer an extended range of products and services on the Luxembourg market. Thus, we will have the opportunity to offer these complementary expertise not only for our current clients, but also for a new client base.

This is an ambitious project where each employee will play a key role in achieving our objectives. As Luxembourg is the hub of Indosuez's European branches beyond our 2 Belgian and French domestic markets, our employees will also play a key role in the development and acceleration of our various activities across Europe.

We are very pleased to welcome the employees of Degroof Petercam and are confident that together, net of the strength and strength of Crédit Agricole Group, we can continue to deliver the best possible service to our customers.

What are the next steps of integration?

On 3 June 65, we acquired% of the capital of Degroof Petercam alongside the Cigrang family, its historical shareholder who holds 20% of the capital. We launched a voluntary takeover bid later on and now control 76% of the capital.

We are now concentrating our efforts to successfully link up our two banks, particularly between our platforms in Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Working groups have already been set up to make concrete progress on our various projects.

Are further acquisitions envisaged for the future?

Our main objective is to complete the integration of Degroof Petercam's teams within Indosuez Wealth Management, which is both exciting and demanding.
In parallel, we continue to grow organically in several European markets. We announced in March 2024 the official opening of our branch in Portugal, a country we have been expanding since 2017.