Barclays confirms BlackRock talks

8th Jun 2009 07:09

Barclays has confirmed talks are underway with US firm BlackRock over the future over its fund management arm Barclays Global Investors (BGI), which includes its iShares business.Reports over the weekend suggested Barclays is poised to conclude a deal that would see BlackRock buy BGI for £8.1bn, with Barclays to take up to a 20% stake in the combined business.In its statement, Barclays said since its announcement of the sale of its iShares business to CVC Capital Partners SICAV-FIS for $4.4bn in April, it had received other proposals for iShares and the broader BGI business. "In assessing such proposals, Barclays has had discussions with a number of parties, including with BlackRock, about both iShares and BGI. The discussions are not yet concluded and there are a number of significant open issues which could affect the nature and terms of any transaction," the statement said. "There is no certainty that these discussions will result in Barclays concluding a different transaction than that announced on 9 April with CVC regarding iShares," it added.Today, the FT reported that Bank of New York Mellon is also interested in BGI.