Dexia is in exclusive talks with a Hong Kong-based private equity fund over its asset management division, which could result in one of the first big acquisitions of a European financial business by an Asian buyer since the sovereign debt crisis.

Neither the Belgo-French financial group nor GCS Capital, which is run by two former senior investment bankers at HSBC, gave many details on the talks, but a deal for the European asset manager could be worth up to €500 million, according to people familiar with the transaction.

The sale by Dexia would represent the final stage of the dismemberment of one Europe's biggest victims of the financial crisis. - Copyright the Financial Times Limited 2012