German asset manager Union Investment has launched an “integration project” to determine the future set-up of KAG assets recently acquired from Austria’s Volksbanken.

Earlier this week, Union announced that it paid an undisclosed sum for the Volksbanken Invest KAG and the real estate manager Volksbanken Immobilien KAG.

A spokesman at Union told IPE: “We are just now getting to know the staff and cannot comment on any personnel decisions at the moment.”

In total, the Volksbanken Invest KAG, to be run under the Union Investment brand, has €4.75bn in assets under management, as of the end of June.

The real estate KAG has €650m, a small amount of which is institutional.

The new acquisitions will increase Union’s roughly €1bn in institutional assets, mainly for Austrian Pensionskassen, Vorsorgekassen and insurers, to more than €4bn.

In a statement, Union said it would expand its institutional business in Austria and seek to gain access to retail investors via the Volksbanken branches.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter, pending regulator approval.