Aviva Investors to move 34 bln euros in assets from AXA fund arm

(Refiles to clarify in headline that Aviva (Other OTC: AIVAF - news) instigated move)

LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - AXA Investment Managers said on Wednesday it had been notified that 34 billion euros ($36.95 billion) in assets it currently manages on behalf of Friends Life would move to Aviva Investors by the end of the year.

The statement followed one from British insurer Aviva (Amsterdam: AW8.AS - news) in which it said it planned to move some of the funds currently run by AXA (Paris: FR0000120628 - news) in-house, following a review of its operations after buying Friends Life (Other OTC: RSLLF - news) earlier this year.

"From the outset, Aviva made it clear that the acquisition offers the opportunity to increase Aviva Investors' AUM (assets under management) by recapturing previously outsourced asset management contracts," AXA said in a statement.

AXA said the withdrawal would likely have a "limited negative impact" on AXA IM's underlying earnings for 2016, and that it would receive a one-off withdrawal fee, which will be accounted for in its net income.

"Given this move by Aviva, we now anticipate that, over a period of time, some of the remaining assets that we manage on behalf of Friends Life may also be removed." ($1 = 0.9201 euros) (Reporting by Simon Jessop; editing by Carolyn Cohn)