Deutsche Bank to accept bids on $2bn asset management unit

LONDON (ShareCast) - Deutsche Bank (Xetra: 514000 - news) is expected to slim down the list of possible buyers for its asset management unit and may require binding bids to be submitted on Wednesday, according to a report from Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Among the possible bidders are State Street (NYSE: STT - news) , Guggenheim Partners, Macquarie Group and Ameriprise Financial (NYSE: AMP-PA - news) . The largest German bank by assets announced its intention to sell the unit last November (Stuttgart: A0Z24E - news) and estimated that the value of the division at approximately $2bn. According to the paper, the unit has $524bn in assets, yet most of the buyers' interest is focused on RREEF, a group of alternative investment funds concentrated on property assets. WSJ's sources say that Deutsche Bank still wishes to sell the unit as a whole, but may consider dividing up the assets for separate sale. Deutsche Bank was trading down 0.25% at €33.565 in morning trade in Frankfurt. JM