Italy's Generali and France's BPCE said on Tuesday they had taken the first step towards creating Europe's largest asset manager by revenue as the industry bets on size to protect profit margins. The

With €1.9tn in AUM, the joint venture would allow the pair to expand globally and speed up a push into private markets.

Italy's top insurer Generali aims to reach a preliminary accord with Natixis Investment Managers to combine their asset management operations in order to submit the deal to its board on Jan. 20, two people close to the matter said.

Generali and Natixis (BPCE group) on Tuesday signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to create a European asset management giant that will have 1.9 billion euros in assets under management and 4.