Credit Suisse Group AG (CS), looking to push further into hedge-fund investing, is in talks to acquire a Chicago investment business with $11 billion in assets.

The Swiss bank is in discussions with Mesirow Financial, a privately owned trading and investment-advisory firm, to acquire its investment arm that places client money in hedge funds, called Mesirow Advanced Strategies Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. The deal would nearly double the $14.5 billion in assets Credit Suisse already oversees that it farms out to a wide range of external hedge funds.