Deutsche Bank AG, Europe's largest investment bank, agreed to sell its U.S. private-client services unit to Raymond James Financial as Co-Chief Executive Officer John Cryan seeks to shrink investment-bank operations and lower costs. Terms were not disclosed.
Haig Ariyan, co-head of wealth management in the Americas for Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, will join St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Raymond James along with other executives as part of the deal, according to a news release from the U.S. firm. The sale excludes Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank's U.S. private bank, which handles some of its wealthiest clients.
Cryan, who replaced Anshu Jain this year, is preparing to shrink the investment-banking empire built by his predecessors to lower costs, lift capital levels and raise the company's stock price. The co-CEO is cutting Deutsche Bank's client list in half, pulling out of countries around the world and scrapping some trading businesses.
"This agreement will allow us to focus on our strategic priorities including investing in our U.S. private bank," Fabrizio Campelli, Deutsche Bank's global head of wealth management, said in the release. "The U.S. is a key geographic region for Deutsche Bank's wealth-management business."
The U.S. private-client business, once part of Alex. Brown, was acquired by Deutsche Bank in its purchase of Bankers Trust Corp. in 1999. The $9 billion deal was a record at the time for a foreign purchase of a U.S. investment bank.
