BC Partners, the private equity group, has stopped work on a potential $5bn counter-bid for iShares, the exchange-traded funds arm of Barclays, after the bank started talks to sell its entire asset management business, Barclays Global Investors. Barclays had been keen to attract counter-bids to improve on the $4.2bn sale of iShares agreed last month with buyout group CVC. But interest from potential counter-bidders has waned since money manager BlackRock approached Barclays about buying all of BGI, including iShares, in a deal likely to be worth more than $10bn.
