Deutsche Bank AG took another step to expand its asset management on Thursday, when it announced it would buy RoPro U.S. Holdings Inc., the San Francisco holding company for the real estate investment management company RREEF, for approximately $440 million.
The transaction, which is expected to close in the first half of this year, may not be the Frankfurt company's last U.S. asset management deal.
At a conference Thursday in Frankfurt, Rolf E. Breuer, Deutsche's chief executive, said it is not done with shopping for deals in the United States. "We're still interested in a private bank."
Mr. Breuer has repeatedly said that Deutsche is looking to extend its asset management and investment product distribution in the United States, where it lacks a significant channel to reach private clients. However, a spokesman for Deutsche in Frankfurt said Thursday that the company has no imminent plans for further acquisitions.
In September, seeking to cater to wealthier investors, Deutsche announced a deal to acquire Scudder Investments, the U.S. asset management unit of the Swiss insurer Zurich Financial Services. It also sold its no-frills National Discount Brokers to Ameritrade Corp. last year.
RREEF, an institutional real estate investment manager, has $16.2 billion of assets under management and would complement Deutsche's expertise and leading position in European real estate management, analysts say.
Deutsche announced on Feb. 27 that it had consolidated its real estate investment management operations in Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and its New York-based DB Realty Mezzanine Investment Funds into DB Real Estate, a global group headquartered in New York. The real estate group remains a part of Deutsche Asset Management of Frankfurt.
"The acquisition of RREEF fits with Deutsche Bank's Private Client and Asset Management strategy to improve our position as a manager of third-party capital for our clients and is entirely consistent with other acquisitions we have made recently," said Michael Philipp, who heads the real estate group.
Daniel Gresch, a European bank analyst with UBS Warburg in Zurich, said that the deal would fit into Deutsche's existing strength, but it would not solve the company's weakness in retail distribution.
"This acquisition caters to the institutional side," Mr. Gresch said. Deutsche's retail strategy in the United States "remains unclear, and RREEF does not change that."
Alexander Plenk, an analyst with Bankgesellschaft Berlin AG, called the deal for RoPro "a good deal" for Deutsche. "It can get more out of RREEF."
However, he agreed with Mr. Gresch that the deal has limited significance for the company's overall expansion strategy. "It has little impact on earnings," he said.
