The CEO of a publicly traded multinational is standing by his asset management subsidiary ... and hinting at future dealmaking.

"Because there have been rumors, we have consistently said that we expect DWS to remain core part of our strategy going forward," Christian Sewing, CEO of DWS parent Deutsche Bank, told analysts Friday on the bank's Q1 2019 earnings call (as transcribed by Seeking Alpha). "We have consistently indicated that we intend to participate in the industry consolidation we expect in asset management. And this was one of the key reasons to take the company public last year."

In other words, Sewing says Deutsche is a buyer, not a seller.

Sewing seemed to be addressing recent reports that Deutsche and UBS are talking about merging DWS with UBS' asset management arm. His remarks lend credence to the more recent reports that Deutsche would remain the biggest DWS shareholder after such a merger. (Though DWS is publicly traded, Deutsche still owns 79 percent of it.)

On Friday, DWS reported Q1 2019 positive net flows, a rise in net income, and a six-percent increase in AUM to EUR 662 billion ($743.06 billion). 

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