The French group Societe Generale is in talks to buy the Equities, Markets and Commodities division of Commerzbank, the German giant, after beating rival bidder Goldman Sachs, according to Reuters.
The German bank declined to comment, but it has previously intended to sale the unit. Societe Generale also refused to comment.
The EMC division includes Commerzbank’s exchange traded funds, equity derivatives and other capital market slots. Societe Generale asset manager Lyxor had USD 172.2 billion in assets under management, from which USD 84 billion are placed in ETFs and indexing.
Last September, the unit’s manager said in an interview that Lyxor Asset Management was prepared tp buy a rival provider of index funds in order to keep its European market no. 2 position.