Amundi offers around 4 billion euros for UniCredit's Pioneer - sources

MILAN (Reuters) - France's Amundi has made a higher than expected 4 billion euro (3.53 billion pounds) offer to buy UniCredit's asset manager Pioneer, two sources close to the matter said on

Thursday.

Amundi is one of four bidders vying for Pioneer, alongside an Italian consortium led by Poste Italiane, Australia's Macquarie and British group Aberdeen Asset Management, sources have said.

One of the sources said Poste was now looking for a financial partner to improve its own offer for Pioneer, which had previously been valued at around 3 billion euros.

Amundi, Europe's biggest asset manager, declined to comment. UniCredit was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Francesca Landini and Gianluca Semeraro)