According to people familiar with the matter, AG is monitoring the situation at Group AG for a potential opening to acquire certain businesses.
The people said that they touched on what parts of would be attractive and what valuation they would put on desirable assets should they come to market if it is bought by UBS Group AG or broken up, and not to be identified as discussing private information. The people said the German bank's deliberations so far are internal and they haven't made any concrete proposals to the Swiss lender yet.
The people said that Deutsche Bank's deliberations are part of a larger exercise to assess potential fallout from the rout. Larger rival UBS is looking at the acquisition of all or part of Credit Suisse at the urging of Swiss regulators, and any combination could lead to asset sales, people familiar with the matter have previously said.
Credit Suisse's asset management and wealth businesses could be of interest, given the German firm's appetite to expand in those areas. It had already studied those businesses while the Swiss bank was preparing a major strategy revamp it presented in late October, Bloomberg reported. The project was on hold after the Swiss lender announced the overhaul, but people familiar said recently that it could be reactivated if assets became available.
After breaking off talks on a potential deal to take over German rival Commerzbank AG, Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing has previously stated that the firm wants to play a lead role in consolidation. He stated that the bank should have its own house by the end of 2022, though he recently said he had little immediate appetite for M&A.
Credit Suisse is struggling to draw a line because of a crisis of confidence that forced it to seek emergency liquidity from the Swiss National Bank earlier this week. The lifeline calmed investors for a short period, and Swiss regulators asked UBS to take over all or parts of its rival, Bloomberg reported.
In February, JPMorgan analysts, led by Kian Abouhossein, put an estimated valuation of 10 billion Swiss francs on Credit Suisse's wealth management unit and 1.4 billion francs on asset management.
Since taking charge five years ago, Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing has held official takeover talks with Commerzbank AG and informal ones with UBS, though all discussions were eventually broken off without a deal. He d like to be a buyer rather than a target in any potential deal, and he has been a forceful advocate for European banking consolidation.