Macquarie Group is reportedly considering a bid of up to $2 billion for JPMorgan’s physical commodities business.
According to CNBC, the shortlist of bidders includes the private-equity firm Blackstone Group and the Australian bank Macquarie Group.
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JPMorgan executives are hoping to make a decision on the sale before the month’s end based on the assets sold.
The sale comes after a regulatory clampdown on JPMorgan and other firms, and includes physical commodities assets such as a global metal warehouse network, energy supply agreements and power plants.
JPMorgan’s CFO Marianne Lake said the bank was only selling the parts of the business that are the most capital-intensive for them.
JPMorgan has estimated the sum of its physical commodities holdings at about US$3.3 billion in the initial sale documents, but any transaction is unlikely to include the sale of the holdings in their entirety to one bidding party.
JPMorgan’s chief executive Jamie Dimon said he was pleased the company had decided to accept responsibility, resolve these issues and move forward.
