BNP Paribas is launching a dedicated private asset management business next year aimed at strengthening the bank’s presence in the booming private assets market.
The new unit, BNP Paribas Private Assets, will directly manage a range of asset classes, including corporate financing, real assets such as infrastructure and commercial real estate debt, and individuals’ financing, alongside Dutch mortgage specialist Dynamic Credit Group. At the same time, the new business also focuses on indirect money management, including investment in private asset funds, and advisory in fund selection.
BNP Paribas Private Assets forms part of the French bank’s Investment and Protection Services division, which includes asset management, wealth management, insurance and real estate.
It will combine the existing private asset management expertise of the IPS division, which currently has €30 billion ($32 billion) of assets under management and advisory.
These include the private asset management activities of Principal Investments and its subsidiary BNP Paribas Agility Capital, the third-party private asset management activities of BNP Paribas Asset Management, currently carried out by the Private Debt & Real Assets teams, and some parts of BNP Paribas Cardiff’s private asset management activities.
Integrated within BNPP Asset Management and operational from January 2023, Private Assets will be headed by David Bouchoucha, who becomes head of Private Assets, reporting directly to Sandro Pierri, Chief Executive Officer of BNPP AM.
It will operate in close collaboration with BNP Paribas Corporate & Institutional Banking and the Group’s distribution networks, raising funds from major institutional investors and individual investors, with integration of ESG criteria a key part of the investment and fund selection processes.
“In an environment of volatility and cyclical uncertainty, being able to offer quality assets, selected according to financial and extra financial criteria, offering a stable return provides a major diversification lever,” said Pierri.
Renaud Dumora, deputy chief operating officer of BNP Paribas and head of Investment & Protection Services, said the private asset market has tripled over the past decade, adding the sector is a key growth driver of the firm’s Growth, Technology and Sustainability 2025 strategic plan.
“Several IPS business lines have already developed strong expertise in private asset management and bringing them together will result in a stronger, broader and differentiated client offering,” Dumora explained. “By leveraging all of the Group’s capabilities, Private Assets will be able to meet the growing expectations of institutional investors as well as individual clients.”
