Deutsche Bank Reportedly Ready To Sell Off Asset Management Units As Euro Crisis Drags On
Deutsche Bank is currently reviewing bids to unload its sprawling asset management operation, keeping only the non-U.S. DWS operation.
About $500 billion in AUM and $525 million in annual profit is on the block here, with maybe 25% of that AUM coming from the American DWS side of the business.
Deutsche needs to streamline its operation to meet stricter European capital rules. Right now, the bank is about $5 billion behind where it needs to be to keep the regulators happy.
For advisors who use DWS funds, this could be a critical period to watch manager risk as well as potential conflicts of interest that emerge depending on the buyer.
A private equity sale wouldn't be so bad, since they'd only be interested in maintaining the existing profit stream.
But if DWS gets sold to another bank or even a brokerage firm, it might be less attractive for some advisors to maintain a relationship with these funds.