Update: AXA IM remains 'strategic' part of French insurer

On the back of approaches by potential partners

AXA Investment Managers remains a "strategic asset" for French insurer AXA, as the group confirms it has received a number of approaches to purchase its asset management arm.

CEO of AXA Investment Managers Andrea Rossi seeked to reassure staff in an email sent on 12 October, seen by Reuters,  over the future of the asset management business. Rossi said: "These [press reports and rumours] come in the context of a consolidating asset management sector in which the group has been approached by a number of parties interested in considering a potential transaction with us." Under AXA CEO Thomas Buberl, the firm has been looking at ways of boosting the asset management unit's profitability, amid an environment of rising regulatory costs and falling fees. "I w...