In what would be a tremendous upset in the mutual fund industry, Barclays is shopping its iShares exchange-traded fund unit.
Firms reportedly interested in the unit include Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase.
A broker/dealer buying iShares is the most likely scenario I see, if it happens, Matthew McCall, president of Penn Financial Group, an ETF specialist financial advisory firm, told MarketWatch.
Rob Ivanoff, an analyst with Financial Research Corp., said that given the markets declines, the iShares unit could be worth $4 billion. Others said it could sell for $7 billion.
Matt Hougan, an editor with IndexUniverse.com, said he was shocked that Barclayswith 360 funds totaling $300 billion, the biggest provider of ETFswould consider selling such a successful unit. Hougan said that even though Barclays has a 45% market share of the ETF industry, that it would be a tough sale given the lack of liquidity in the mergers & acquisitions industry.