The sale of Deutsche Bank's U.S. asset management business is moving quickly, but potentially at a price. Recent reports by Reuters and Bloomberg.

A Deutsche Bank spokesperson told the news outlets that the exclusive negotiations with Guggenheim Partners [profile] (MFWire, Feb 28) remain "on track."

The downside of the relatively quick deal may come in the pricing. A deal is expected in the next few weeks with the end of April being the reported deadline. In May Deutsche CEO Josef Ackermann retires and the bank will have a new management team.

The news agencies report that the sales price is between 1.5 billion and 1.6 billion euros. That translates to just more than $2 billion dollars. Deutsche is also reportedly discussing provisions of the sale in which it would accept a lower price if the unit fails to meet financial hurdles down the road.

The units that are on the block include DWS Americas [profile] and other units that all together have 400 billion euros in AUM and some 1,500 employees. That puts the price at just 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent of AUM.

Guggenheim employs some 1,700 workers in its asset management business and claims $125 billion of AUM.

The other news in the articles is that Deutsche's Kevin Parker is expected to go with the unit as a part of the sale. 

Edited by: Sean Hanna, Editor in Chief


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