Dresdner Bank Luxembourg, part of Germany’s Commerzbank, has sold its Dutch asset management and private banking business, VPV, to its employees in a management buyout for an undisclosed sum.

The Dutch business is based in Gouda and had €1.2 billion (around $1.7 billion) of assets at the end of last year. The firms involved in the deal have decided not to reveal details of the transaction, according to a statement from Dresdner Bank Luxembourg.

The announcement comes as Commerzbank is in the process of selling its UK private banking business, Kleinwort Benson. Commerzbank has already moved to sell banking operations in Luxembourg and Switzerland as part of the tighter focus on its core German market. The European Commission, meanwhile, has stipulated that Commerzbank, which has received state aid from the German taxpayer, must specifically focus on German domestic banking activities and therefore shed some foreign businesses.

VPV is “active as a niche player in asset management, particularly in the segment of value investing in undervalued small and medium-sized companies in the Netherlands and Hong Kong”, the statement said.

A spokeswoman for Dresdner Bank Luxembourg told WealthBriefing that VPV is primarily an asset management firm but it also has a private banking licence. Several other media reports referred to the business as a private bank.

Besides its offices in Gouda, VPV has offices in Amsterdam, Arnhem, s’-Hertogenbosch, Maastricht and Blaricum. Dresdner VPV employed 60 staff at the end of last year.