By Philipp Halstrick and Ben Berkowitz
ISTANBUL/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank remains willing to buy some ABN AMRO assets from the Dutch government, a person familiar with the German bank's thinking said on Saturday, though doubts remain a deal can actually be done.
The European Commission gave the government an extension late Friday night to close an asset sale deal because of an "imminent" transaction with a "large international bank."#
The assets to be sold are the same ones Deutsche Bank was in talks to buy until September 17, which raised immediate assumptions that a sale to Deutsche was back on.
But a German source with knowledge of the bank's position said Saturday there are still doubts about the government's commitment to do a deal with Deutsche.
While there have been talks, the source said, which are ongoing, there is no guarantee that the sides can meet on terms, leaving a deal far from assured.
Deutsche Bank declined to comment. The government has said it will not discuss buyers or potential buyers until a deal is announced.
The assets to be sold comprise commercial bank HBU, two corporate client units, 13 advisory offices and a factoring business.
After Belgian-Dutch conglomerate Fortis joined a consortium buying ABN AMRO in 2007, it struck a deal to sell those assets to Deutsche to comply with an EU order on competition in the local small and medium enterprise banking market.
Following the October 2008 nationalisation of Fortis the Dutch government attempted to renegotiate with Deutsche on the grounds that the deal would have led to a 300 million euro loss.
Sources have said Deutsche agreed to a new deal with concessions, only to be met with a fresh set of requests from the finance ministry. Those last-minute additions led to the deal's collapse.
Without an approved asset sale the Dutch government can not merge ABN AMRO with Fortis Bank Nederland . Its plan is to conduct such a merger and then sell the combined entity to the public sometime in 2011 or later.
(Reporting by Ben Berkowitz)