A real estate asset manager is an apéritifs, not a meal. That is the takeaway from Alexis Leondis' and Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam's BloombergBusinessweek profile of Mark Walter, the CEO of Guggenheim.

The article follows Guggenheim Partners' [profile] decision to scale down its purchase of Deutsche Bank's U.S. asset management business.

Last week the German Bank revealed the end of exclusive talks about Guggenheim buying DWS Americas [profile], with only the RREEF real estate and infrastructure investing unit still on the table.

In recent years, Guggenheim bought ETF shop Claymore and Rydex parent Security Benefit, then combined those asset management businesses and more into a single Guggenheim Investments last year, now boasting $125 billion. In March Walter hired ex-Apollo Global Management chief operating officer Henry Silverman as vice chairman of the investment-management business, according to the pub, and tasked him with the Deutsche deal. Are Walter and Silverman on the prowl for another asset management target?

"RREEF by itself won't satisfy Walter' appetite for expansion," Howard Tai, a senior analyst in the capital markets group of Boston-based research firm Aite Group, reportedly told BloombergBusinessweek.

The piece will give curious fundsters and dealmakers a glimpse of Lincoln Park, Illinois-based Walter's personal life. For instance, he and his wife, Kimbra, are big backers of the Lincoln Park Zoo. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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