London-based stockbroker Cenkos Securities confirmed that it is in talks to buy Close Brothers, the UK investment bank, asset and wealth manager, as it seeks to head off competing bidders that may include US private equity firm Blackstone. Cenkos, whose £1.4 billion ($2.75 billion) cash offer was rejected by Close in November, said in a statement that it is working on an agreement to buy the London-based firm using debt and a “significant” issue of shares. The company would take the securities, asset management and corporate finance units and sell the banking division to Iceland's Landsbanki. New York-based Blackstone, the world's largest buyout firm, is understood to have held takeover talks with Close Brothers at a meeting on 4 January. Close Brothers said last month it had also received “a number of further approaches” following Cenkos's offer in November. Discussions are at early stage, it said. Andrew Stewart, who set up Cenkos in 2005, co-founded Collins Stewart in 1991 as a unit of Singer & Friedlander Group. Following a management buyout of the company in 2000 and its acquisition of UK brokerage Tullett in March 2003, Mr Stewart stepped down as a director. Reykjavik-based Landsbanki aquired Teather & Greenwood and Kepler Equities in the UK, as well as Merrion Capital Group of Ireland in 2005, and added UK's Bridgewell Group last year. Acquiring Close Brothers' banking unit would increase the revenue Landsbanki generates outside Iceland to 60 per cent from 47 per cent, the bank said in a statement. About 33 per cent of Landsbanki's core income would come from retail banking revenue after the deal, up from 17 per cent.