Administration October 11, 2003

Deutsche Moving Ahead With Portfolio Sale

November 22, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Deutsche Bank said it is in exclusive negotiations with the internal management team of Ted Virtue, chief executive of DB Capital Partners, and Graham Clempson, Deutsche's European managing partner, about the sale of a private equity portfolio.
Reported by

Virtue and Clempson have assembled six institutional backers, which includes the Dutch finance house NIB and the Brenninkmeyer family, Dutch owners of retailer C&A, to buy the portfolio of direct investments .   Included in the portfolio, valued at €1.5 billion, are investments in e stablished companies Center Parcs, a leisure park group, United Biscuits, Jenny Craig and Jostens, a US academic publisher.

Initial offers to buy the portfolio came from 30 institutions, which Deutsche said it had reduced to five.   Previous bids from American International Group (AIG) and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) have reportedly been rejected.  

Additionally, Deutsche is looking to sell a venture capital portfolio composed of German and Latin American assets, valued at€1.5billion and to reduce a private equity portfolio, worth€2.5 billion, held through third-party funds.   The proposed sales are part of chairman Josef Ackermann’s attempt to boost profitability by selling non-core assets and his reluctance to commit large amounts of capital to private equity businesses that heighten volatility.

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