BlackRock Lead Bidder for Barclays Fund Unit

BlackRock is reportedly the lead bidder for Barclays’ fund unit, and could pay more than $12 billion for the company, which has $1.5 trillion under management. BlackRock manages $2.81 trillion.

“This could be a transformational deal,” Burton Greenwald, president of B.J. Greenwald Associates, told Bloomberg. “We could see BlackRock open a number of ETFs in the fixed income space that [PIMCO] specializes in.”

A deal could be announced as early as this week, although Barclays is reportedly entertaining offers from other bidders.

“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,” Barclays said in a statement.

Barclays sold its iShares exchange-traded fund business to CVC Capital Partners for $4.4 billion in April. The firm lost $18.6 billion in credit losses and writedowns and subsequently is looking to raise cash in order to obtain adequate capital. The company’s profit fell 65% in the first quarter to $84 million.