The business units under discussion are DWS Americas, the Americas mutual fund business; DB Advisors, the global institutional asset management business; Deutsche Insurance Asset Management, the global insurance asset  management business; and RREEF, the global alternative asset management business.

New York/Frankfurt-listed Deutsche Bank announced in November that it was reviewing options for its global asset management businesses, except for the DWS franchise in Germany, Europe and Asia, which it views as core to its retail offering in those markets.

Guggenheim Partners, a privately-held financial services firm headquartered in the US, earlier this year entered into an agreement to divest its Canada-based ETF business, Claymore Investments, to BlackRock, in an effort to focus on the US market.

The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed but the transaction is expected to be finalized by the end of this quarter, subject to regulatory approvals closing conditions.

Last September the firm announced plans to combine its asset management businesses into a single unit, Guggenheim Investments, with around $119 billion in total assets. This brings together several business units including a number of acquisitions, such as that of Rydex|SGI, also expected to close this quarter.

Guggenheim, which is headquartered in New York and Chicago, has around $125 billion in assets under management and provides asset management and investment advisory services, among others, to various types of institutions as well as individuals. It has 25 offices in 10 countries across North America, Europe and Asia.