ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss bank Vontobel (>> Vontobel Holding AG) said it had the firepower for more deals, after agreeing to buy a majority stake in Britain's TwentyFour Asset Management and announcing takeover talks for a German-based asset manager.

Zurich-based Vontobel has been restrained in acquisitions since buying Commerzbank's (>> Commerzbank AG) Swiss arm in 2009, despite stressing it has the cash for deals.

On Wednesday, the bank said it would buy 60 percent of asset manager TwentyFour, which had around 4.4 billion pounds ($6.5 billion) in assets at the end of 2014.

The deal will help boost Vontobel's asset management business, one of its three major units alongside wealth management and investment banking.

Vontobel also said it was in talks with Bank of New York Mellon (>> Bank of New York Mellon Corp) about a possible takeover of Meriten Investment Management, an asset manager in Germany with around 24.5 billion euros (18 billion pounds) in assets at the end of last year.

Chief Executive Zeno Staub said Vontobel had resources to pursue further deals, adding that any private banking acquisitions would preferably be in Switzerland.

"We would predominately like to buy in Switzerland because there we have the synergies in the mid and back-office," Staub said in call with analysts and reporters. "We would feel comfortable of going up to 20 billion (Swiss francs) (14 billion pounds) in assets under management)."

The bank did not disclose a price for the TwentyFour deal, which it expects to close in the second quarter of the year. One analyst said businesses in deals such as these were typically priced at around 1 percent of assets under management.

Vontobel will eventually purchase the remaining 40 percent of TwentyFour, Staub said, but that was "several years away".

Staub told an earlier media call that the strong appreciation of the Swiss currency after the central bank abandoned its cap against the euro in January was an "additional help" to any deal, but was not a catalyst.

Shares in Vontobel were down 1.1 percent at 1136 GMT, lagging a 0.6 percent fall in the European banking index <.SX7P>.

(Reporting by Joshua Franklin; Additional reporting by Oliver Hirt; Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter)

By Joshua Franklin