Word is that the chief of a $939-billion-AUM, multinational asset manager is on the hunt for deals, both big and small.

Asoka Woehrmann DWS Group CEO

Asoka Woehrmann, head of DWS, thinks he has the blessing of Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sweing when it comes to looking for acquisitions, even deals large enough to entail selling new DWS stock to finance, Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed sources. Deutsche is DWS's majority shareholder, owning more than 79 percent of the publicly traded asset manager as of December 31.

The publication notes that Sewing has said he wants DWS to be top-10 worldwide in terms of the largest asset managers, yet it is currently 17th. The article offers some speculation in terms of DWS acquisition targets (pointing to the AM arms of Credit Suisse and UBS, for example) while noting that, again per unnamed sources, no DWS deal talks have started yet with any targets.

As of December 31, DWS had 793 billion euros (about $939 billion) in AUM, 25 percent of which is in the Americas. It has about 3300 employees. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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