It looks like Macquarie is trying to amp up its Delaware Investments [profile] subsidiary by doing another deal. Bloomberg reports that, according to two unnamed sources, the giant Australian investment bank is bidding in Deutsche Bank's auction of its non-Germany, non-European and non-Asian asset management business, which includes DWS [profile] here in the U.S. and totals nearly $523 billion in assets under management.

Spokespeople for Deutsche and Macquarie both declined to comment to Bloomberg.

In November, Deutsche revealed that it was weighing "strategic options" for the business. Since then, reports have put the price tag for the units at $2.58 billion or more. And as recently as two weeks ago, Reuters named Columbia parent Ameriprise, JPMorgan and State Street as three finalists in what is now round two of the bidding [see MFWire.com, 1/20/2012].

Macquarie bought Delaware from Lincoln Financial Group in 2010 [see MFWire.com, 8/19/2009]. Credit Suisse bank analyst James Ellis told Bloomberg that asset management "is one of the areas of clear strategic thrust under Nicholas Moore," Macquarie's CEO. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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