Deutsche buys Oppenheim FoF group

The financial giant has agreed to buy Luxembourg-based banking group Sal. Oppenheim for about €1bn in a deal that will include Oppenheim’s private equity fund of funds group.

Deutsche Bank has agreed to acquire Sal. Oppenheim Group, including the Luxembourg banking group’s private equity fund of funds business, for €1 billion.

Under the terms of the deal, shareholders in Sal. Oppenheim have the option of a long-term shareholding of up to 20 percent of the Germany subsidiary Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. KGaA, based in Cologne, Germany.

Sal. Oppenheim Private Equity Partners will be transferred to Deutsche Bank in the transaction. Deutsche Bank has an existing private equity fund of funds platform that manages about $3.3 billion and includes 20 investment professionals based in New York, Singapore and Zurich.

Deutsche Bank declined to discuss details of the transaction and it is not clear how the bank will integrate the Sal. Oppenheim unit. Sal. Oppenheim’s fund of funds unit was created last year when Oppenheim merged its two funds of funds vehicles, CAM Private Equity and VCM Capital Management, into a single firm focusing on venture, growth capital, buyout, mezzanine, distressed debt and infrastructure last year.

The combined firm, called Sal. Oppenheim Private Equity Partners, has about €5 billion under management and is led by Rolf Enders, Stefan Herzog and Rolf Wickenkamp.

Prior to the merger, CAM closed its fifth fund of funds on €115 million and launched a joint venture with US-based Newmarkets Partners to launch a flexible emerging markets fund of funds. VCM, based in Munich, closed its second fund of funds, VCM Golding Mezzanine II, with Golding Capital Partners, on €238 million in August 2006.