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By Emi Emoto
TOKYO, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Japanese financial services firmOrix Corp will buy Dutch asset manager Robeco from itsowner Rabobank for about 240 billion yen ($2.6billion) in a cash and stock deal, sources familiar with thematter said on Friday.
The companies are scheduled to sign and announce the dealearly next week, said the sources, who were not authorised todiscuss the matter publicly.
The deal will be the biggest acquisition ever by Orix, adiversified financial services company whose businesses includeleasing, life insurance, real estate and corporate lending, aswell as a professional baseball team.
Under the deal, Orix will pay Rabobank in cash and its ownstock, the sources said. Orix will not issue new shares for thedeal. As the result of the transaction, Rabobank will own around2 percent of the Japanese company's shares.
Rabobank will retain about a 10 percent stake in Robeco,whose management will remain in place after the acquisition, thesource said.
As of Sept. 30, Robeco's assets under management totalled188 billion euros ($251 billion).
Goldman Sachs Group Inc advised Orix on the deal, JPMorgan was the adviser for Robeco and Barclays Plc advised Rabobank.
Japanese banks, brokerage houses and life insurancecompanies are increasingly looking to acquire overseas assetmanagement businesses, which are considered a relatively stablesource of revenue compared with more volatile tradingoperations.
Rabobank, a Dutch cooperative bank that is returning to itsroots lending to local farmers, said last April it was reviewingstrategic options for Robeco after it lost its triple-A creditrating from Standard & Poor's in November 2011.
Rabobank sold its majority stake in private Swiss bankSarasin for 1.04 billion Swiss francs ($1.13 billion)in 2011.
