PARIS: French bank Credit Agricole may sell its Cheuvreux and CLSA brokerage brands if partnership talks with Chinese group Citic fail, French daily La Tribune reported on Thursday.
Indian bank ICICI and the holding company of billionaire Anil Ambani are interested in the brands, which would be worth about 2.5 billion euros ($3.5 billion), the paper said, citing unnamed sources.
A spokeswoman for Credit Agricole, France's third-biggest listed bank, said it never commented on rumours and speculation.
ICICI also declined to comment, while Ambani's financial services firm Reliance Capital was not available to comment.
Credit Agricole is a week away from unveiling a turnaround plan under new management as it seeks to return to its low-risk domestic roots.
Investors and analysts expect additional details on the group's investment banking activities, which have already been heavily restructured since crisis losses and are likely to be cut down further.
However, Natixis analyst Alex Koagne said an outright sale of brokerage brands was unlikely. "We don't think the group wants to exit the brokerage business, it would no longer be able to offer certain services, namely equity capital markets and debt capital markets, to its clients."
Credit Agricole began talks with Citic Securities in May to create a broker and investment bank to chase growing opportunities in Asia, but the completion date for an agreement was pushed back by six months to June this year.
Credit Agricole has said the talks are complex but has downplayed any concern over how they are progressing.
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