UniCredit is working on a Pioneer Investments [profile] deal with Banco Santander, there's a new Pioneer chief in the USA, and now the head of all Pioneer is leaving. [See MFWire's living timeline of the Pioneer auction for more details and history.]

This morning UniCredit CEO Federico Ghizzoni revealed that Pioneer CEO Sandro Pierri is stepping down at the end of January. Deputy CEO and chief investment officer Giordano Lombaro will succeed Pierri.

The Financial Times and Reuters both reported on the move.

The news comes only a few months after Pioneer replaced outgoing Pioneer Investment Management USA president and CEO Daniel Kingsbury with Lisa Jones.

The change also comes as UniCredit appears finally poised to transform Pioneer after years of "will they or won't they" and "if they will, with who?" speculation about selling off the asset manager. In September news broke that UniCredit and Santander were in exclusive talks to combine their asset managers in a joint-venture. The combined entity would reportedly keep the Pioneer brand and eventually spin off in an IPO, though in the meantime Santander and UniCredit would each hold one-third stakes. The final third would be held by two private equity firms, General Atlantic and Warburg Pincus. Warburg also controls European ETF giant (and U.S. ETF player) Source.

Now a Pioneer spokesperson cryptically tells the FT that the Santander discussions are "ongoing". 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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