BlackRock's Buy of Barclays Unit Nears

BlackRock is expected to pay about $13 billion for the asset-management unit of Barclays, and Barclays could retain about a 20% stake, reports say.

Author:: Joseph Woelfel
Publish date:: Jun 11, 2009 1:27 AM EDT

BlackRock's

(BLK) - Get Report

expected deal to buy Barclays Global Investors from U.K. bank

Barclays

(BCS) - Get Report

is likely to be announced as early as Thursday, the

Wall Street Journal

reports, citing people close to the matter.

Money manager BlackRock is expected to pay about $13 billion for the asset-management unit, and Barclays could retain about a 20% stake, the

Journal

and other reports this week have said.

Barclays could get a seat on BlackRock's board as part of the deal, the

Journal

reports. BlackRock is expected to fund a portion of the purchase from sovereign funds in the Middle East.

Combined with BGI, BlackRock would be the world's largest money manager, with roughly $2.8 trillion in assets under management, according to the

Journal

Barclays on Monday confirmed it has held talks with BlackRock for the BGI business, but also said it has received proposals for BGI and its iShares business from a number of parties.

Barclays reached an agreement earlier this year to sell iShares, which specializes in exchange-traded funds, to CVC Capital Partners for $4.4 billion. But a "go shop" clause in the agreement gives Barclays until June 18 to get a better deal for iShares or BGI and pay a $175 million break-up fee to CVC.