Deutsche Bank plans to acquire commodities trading company RBS Sempra to expand into commodities as part of its investment banking build-out, reported the Financial Times.
Reportedly, Deutsche Bank is in talks with both RBS and Sempra, the US group that controls the other half of the commodities joint venture over the deal that could be worth GBP1.8 billion. Other banks that are said to have evinced interest in the deal include Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
The deal is expected to mark the first of the RBS asset sales ordered by the European Commission under the terms of the state aid ruling imposed on the part-nationalised bank in Novermber 2009, reported the newspaper.
Anshu Jain, head of global markets at Deutsche Bank, said that ‘commodities is one of the few areas’ in which it lags behind rivals. Expanding into commodities would help it achieve its ambitious overall annual pre-tax profit goal of EUR10 billion from its operating divisions in 2011.
