Deutsche Bank, saddled with as much as $20 billion of loans tied to leveraged buyouts, is in a mad dash to offload them – and we are talking some very big names in private equity here. How much are its wares worth? We understand that the going rate for dismal debt these days is hovering at around 90 cents on the dollar. That doesn’t look too bad, considering the gossip over at Goldman is that the bank’s unwanted loans are available at their deepest discount yet – 65 cents on the euro, or so sayeth the London Times.

In the latest move by a major bank to unload unwanted assets, Deutsche Bank AG is seeking to sell as much as $20 billion of debt related to leveraged buyouts to a collection of investors that include private-equity firms, people familiar with the matter said.

Deutsche Bank would follow Citigroup Inc. in seeking to offload at a loss a big swath of debt that is clogging up its balance sheet and keeping it from making new loans. U.S. and European banks got stuck with hundreds of billions of dollars of high-risk debt when the credit crunch sapped investors of their demand for such paper. But unlike Citigroup, which is looking for buyers of a $12 billion package of loans and bonds, Deutsche Bank is selling off its debt in parcels, people familiar with the matter say.

Some of the U.S. private-equity firms that are in discussions to buy the Citigroup debt are also talking with Deutsche Bank, two of the people said. The firms talking to Citigroup include Blackstone Group, Apollo Management LP and TPG. Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank is also talking with the debt-investing affiliate of Bain Capital LLC, Sankaty Advisors, the people said. Officials for the buyout firms either declined to comment or couldn't be reached.

A Deutsche Bank spokesman declined to comment except to say the bank follows the markets and what its peers are doing.

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