M and A
Deutsche-Guggenheim Negotiations “On Track”; Deal Reportedly Valued At $2 Billion
Deutsche Bank’s negotiation with Guggenheim Partners over the sale of the German lender's US asset management business is “well on track”, according to a Deutsche spokesperson, who declined to comment on an alleged price of around $2 billion.
Reuters reported that the consideration would be between €1.5 billion and €1.6 billion ($2-2.1 billion), and that an agreement is expected to be reached this month.
When the negotiations first became known in February the deal was expected to be finalized at the end of last month.
The spokesperson told this publication that Deutsche's private wealth management business would be unaffected by the potential deal.
The business units under discussion are DWS Americas, the Americas mutual fund business; DB Advisors, the global institutional asset management business; Deutsche Insurance Asset Management, the global insurance asset management business; and RREEF, the global alternative asset management business.
New York and Frankfurt-listed Deutsche Bank announced in November that it was reviewing options for its global asset management businesses, except for the DWS franchise in Germany, Europe and Asia, which it views as core to its retail offering in those markets.
Guggenheim Partners, a privately-held financial services firm headquartered in the US, earlier this year entered into an agreement to divest its Canada-based ETF business, Claymore Investments, to BlackRock, in an effort to focus on the US market.
Last September the firm announced plans to combine its asset management businesses into a single unit, Guggenheim Investments, with around $119 billion in total assets. This brings together several business units including a number of acquisitions, such as that of Rydex|SGI, also expected to close this quarter.
Guggenheim, which is headquartered in New York and Chicago, has around $125 billion in assets under management and provides asset management and investment advisory services, among others, to various types of institutions as well as individuals. It has 25 offices in 10 countries across North America, Europe and Asia.
