Everlasting negotiations of Barclays over BGI, next candidate is BlackRock

On Monday UK largest bank Barclays reported that it is in talks with BlackRock over a potential sale of its Barclays Global Investors business, but added that "significant" issues must be addressed for a deal to go ahead. The bank said that it has received proposals for the BGI business and for just the iShares exchange-traded-funds unit.

These proposals were made after Barclays agreed to sell iShares to private-equity group CVC Capital for $4.4 billion in April. The deal included a so-called go-shop clause, giving Barclays until the middle of June to find a better deal.

Earlier in the Telegraph paper it was reported that the bank could announce a $13 billion deal to sell BGI to BlackRock as soon as Wednesday. The Telegraph reported that the deal would involve in a mix of cash and shares, giving Barclays a 20% stake in BlackRock with Barclays President Bob Diamond keeping a seat on the BlackRock board.

Other sources also noted that previously BlackRock and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. have both previously been linked with a bid for BGI. It was said that Bank of New York Mellon could step in if BlackRock fails to come up with an attractive price in the next few days.