US investment giant Nuveen is due to buy UK investment manager Schroders in a cash deal of around £9.9bn (€11.4bn), a move that could create the eighth largest European institutional asset management group, according to IPE data.
According to IPE’s latest Top 500 Asset Managers report, the combined group will have €357bn in non-group assets managed for all types of European institutional clients – pension funds, insurance companies, corporates, charities and foundations.
As concerns total assets, the planned acquisition will lead to a combined group of some €2trn, making the combined group the ninth largest global manager, below Amundi but ahead of BNY Investments and edging PIMCO out of the top 10, IPE’s research shows.
The proposed takeover could create the fifth-largest real estate investment manager and 11th-largest infrastructure fund manager, as reported by IPE’s sister publication, IPE Real Assets.
In an announcement today, Nuveen said the Schroders group could be expected to continue to operate as a standalone business within the wider Nuveen group for at least 12 months following the completion of the all-cash acquisition.
Schroders will continue to be led by chief executive officer Richard Oldfield, who will report to William Huffman, Nuveen’s CEO, and become a member of the Nuveen executive management team.
Ray Soudah, founder and chair of MilleniumAssociates, an independent Swiss and UK-based M&A advisory firm specialising in asset and wealth management, told IPE the deal was “sweet for Schroders shareholders and somewhat neutral to negative to their clients and employees having to be part of a larger bureaucracy, albeit tempered by the continuity of the existing CEO”.
“Not many synergies can be realistically expected given different platforms and jurisdictions.”
Amin Rajan, CEO of CREATE-Research, said an acquisition like this had been inevitable, with Schroders having long remained a sub-scale business.
“The UK loses a national champion: the Schroders brand is widely admired,” he added. “It would be a shame if the business loses its former identity post integration.
“The continuing asset industry consolidation favours scale players. How it benefits the end clients is unclear.”
Last year, BNP Paribas finalised the acquisition of AXA Investment Managers.
Nuveen, which is owned by US insurance and retirement savings firm TIAA, said it expected that London would serve as the combined group’s non-US headquarters and largest office; Dame Elizabeth Corley, chair of Schroders, said London would “remain at the heart of this enlarged business”.
“The board of Schroders is confident that this is the right step for our shareholders, clients and people.”
Nuveen’s Huffman said the transaction was “about unlocking new growth opportunities for wealth and institutional investors around the world by giving our leading, differentiated public-to-private platform a broader global presence”.
Oldfield added: “In a competitive landscape where scale can help deliver benefits, in Nuveen we see a partner that shares our values, respects the culture we have built and will create exciting opportunities for our clients and people.
“The transaction will significantly accelerate our growth plans to create a leading public-to-private platform with enhanced geographic reach and a strengthened balance sheet.”
The transaction is currently expected to become effective and close during Q4 2026, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of certain conditions, including the approval by Schroders shareholders and relevant antitrust and regulatory authorities.
