Mark Walter's negotiations with Deustche Bank may have fallen apart because of a withdrawn guarantee.

A week ago the German bank and Guggenheim Partners [profile] ended their exclusive negotiations for the private equity firm to buy DWS Americas [profile] and much of the rest of Deutsche's global asset management business for 1.4 billion euros ($1.78 billion), to focus solely on a real estate and infrastructure investing unit. Then Reuters reported that, according to one anonymous source, the larger deal talks collapsed after Deutsche Bank dropped an 800 million euro (i.e. $1.02 billion) five-year guarantee and Walter and his team responded by lowering their offer.

Yet a Deutsche spokeswoman insisted to Reuters that that was not how things went down.

"The characterization around the guarantee and price reduction is incorrect," the spokeswoman reportedly said. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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