Deutsche Bank has entered into exclusive talks with Guggenheim Partners over the sale of the German bank’s asset management business, the firm announced today.

The business units under discussion are DWS Americas, the Americas
mutual fund business; DB Advisors, the global institutional asset
management business; Deutsche Insurance Asset Management, the global
insurance asset  management business; and RREEF, the global alternative
asset management business.

New York/Frankfurt-listed Deutsche Bank announced in November that it
was reviewing options for its global asset management businesses,
except for the DWS franchise in Germany, Europe and Asia, which it views
as core to its retail offering in those markets.

Guggenheim Partners, a privately-held financial services firm
headquartered in the US, earlier this year entered into an agreement to
divest its Canada-based ETF business, Claymore Investments, to
BlackRock, in an effort to focus on the US market.

The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed but the transaction is
expected to be finalized by the end of this quarter, subject to
regulatory approvals closing conditions.

Last September the firm announced plans to combine its asset
management businesses into a single unit, Guggenheim Investments, with
around $119 billion in total assets. This brings together several
business units including a number of acquisitions, such as that of
Rydex|SGI, also expected to close this quarter.

Guggenheim, which is headquartered in New York and Chicago, has
around $125 billion in assets under management and provides asset
management and investment advisory services, among others, to various
types of institutions as well as individuals. It has 25 offices in 10
countries across North America, Europe and Asia.