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

Italy’s Generali and the owner of France’s Natixis are set to combine their asset management operations to create a European giant overlooking 1.9 trillion euros ($1.979 trillion) in assets.The Italian insurer and French retail bank Groupe BPCE signed a preliminary deal underpinned by 15-year contracts to form a joint venture they will each own a 50% of.

The board of Italy's top insurer Generali has approved a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that paves the way for an asset management deal with BPCE's Natixis Investment Managers to crate a European champion,

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

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.