View of the Union Investment-Skyscraper at a sunny winter day 2013

Union Asset Management Holding AG () is the

investment Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broade ...

arm of the DZ Bank Group and part of the cooperative financial services network. It was founded in 1956 and is headquartered in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. Trading in

open-end fund Open-end fund (or open-ended fund) is a collective investment scheme that can issue and redeem shares at any time. An investor will generally purchase shares in the fund directly from the fund itself, rather than from the existing shareholders. ...

s occurs in part through the 1,101

credit union A credit union is a member-owned nonprofit organization, nonprofit cooperative financial institution. They may offer financial services equivalent to those of commercial banks, such as share accounts (savings accounts), share draft accounts (che ...

s in Germany (Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken Co-operative, including Sparda-Banks, PSD-banks, etc.) and in part through the external services of Bausparkasse Schwäbisch Hall AG, DZ Bank Group's

building society A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization, which offers banking institution, banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage loan, mortgage lending. They exist in the Unit ...

. The primary shareholders in Union Investment are DZ Bank with 54.44% and WGZ Bank (the central bank of the credit unions in the

Rhineland The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...

and

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

) with 17.72%. Other shareholders include BBBank and the credit unions through their membership associations. , Union Investment has self-declared

assets under management In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management, refers to the total market value of all financial assets that a financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institutio ...

of approximately 368.2

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: * 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of ...

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

.Kennzahlen
Kennzahlen im Überblick, Union Investment, retrieved 4 April 2020

Subsidiaries

Union Asset Management Holding AG has 15

subsidiaries A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidiary company. Unl ...

, including: * Attrax S.A. in

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

for funds

brokerage A broker is a person or entity that arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller. This may be done for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neith ...

, distribution, share administration and custody services * Union Investment Institutional GmbH for institutional clients * Union Investment Institutional Property for institutional property investments * Union Investment Luxembourg S.A. in Luxembourg * Union Investment Privatfonds GmbH offers open-end funds to private investors * Union Investment Real Estate GmbH (formerly DIFA Deutsche Immobilien Fonds AG) is the second largest German property investment association * Quoniam Asset Management GmbH follows a quantitative approach to investment and manages funds for institutional clients

History

The Union-Investment- Gesellschaft mbH was the third German investment association to be founded, on 26 January 1956, by 14 credit unions. The UniFonds stock fund was created the same year as its first open-end fund. The first offering of investment vehicles outside Germany was in 1961, in Belgium. Co op Immobilienfonds Verwaltung AG was founded in Hamburg in 1965 and in 1980 renamed Deutsche Immobilien Fonds AG or DIFA. The initial stockholders were the Central Institute of Consumer Cooperatives and the Bank für Gemeinwirtschaft. In 1966 DIFA launched an open-end property fund, Co op Immobilienfonds, later renamed DIFA-Fonds Nr. 1 (DIFA Fund No. 1). Starting on 15 January 2007, DIFA did business under the name Union Investment Real Estate AG; in 2009 it was converted to a GmbH. Since 1967, Union Investment has offered management of investment accounts. In 1968, it offered its first retirement fund, UniRenta. In 1969, it reached a fund capitalization of 1 billion DM. Union Investment Luxembourg S.A. was founded in 1988. The total capitalization of the group was now 10 billion DM. In April 1994 Union Investment began offering stock-based wealth management with three strategic variants: chance, growth and security. In 1996 it introduced stock-based

life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typical ...

under the name Opti Plan. The

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

Union-Fonds-Holding AG was founded in 1999 and changed its name in July 2002 to Union Asset Management Holding AG.

Distinctions

In March 2013 Union Investment became the first investment association to be awarded five stars eleven times in a row in the

investment fund An investment fund is a way of investment, investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These ad ...

s guide of the German business magazine '' Capital''."Union Investment im Club der '5-Sterne-Gesellschaften'"
Press release, Fondscheck.de, 12 March 2013, retrieved 27 July 2013

References

External links

Union Investment website
{{Authority control Financial services companies established in 1956 Investment companies of Germany 1956 establishments in West Germany Companies based in Frankfurt German companies established in 1956 Asset management companies