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Schroders has agreed a £9.9bn takeover by US asset manager Nuveen, which will end the independence of one of the City of London’s most historic names.
The group has agreed to a 612p per share offer from Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America – a retirement savings group – for Nuveen, which will create one of the world’s largest asset managers with $2.5 trillion in assets.
The offer includes 590p in cash – a 29 per cent premium on Schroders’ closing share price of 456p on Wednesday – and a 22p dividend paid by the FTSE 100 group to its shareholders ahead of the deal.
Shares rose 30 per cent to 592p in early trading on Thursday.
Both companies said the Schroders brand would be retained and London would be its largest office.
The deal comes just months after Chief Executive Richard Oldfield dismissed speculation that the Schroder family, which owns a 44 percent stake, was looking to sell the business.
“No, the family has no intention of selling,” Oldfield said in July.
On Thursday, Oldfield said: “This business is not and has never been for sale… This is not the result of us doing a secret auction – I don’t think I would have been able to keep it quiet.”
He said Schroders had agreed to the deal because they saw “a huge opportunity to build something powerful and unique” with Nuveen.
Schroders is attempting to cut costs and boost growth. Before the acquisition was announced, the 221-year-old company’s share price had fallen by more than a fifth in the past five years.
Oldfield said the deal was “not about saving money” but about pursuing growth and that Nuveen “will not go beyond what we have already envisaged in our transformation project”.
He said the transaction would “significantly accelerate our growth plans to build a leading public-to-private platform with enhanced geographic reach”.
The transaction, which will require shareholder approval, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Oldfield, a former PwC accountant, has taken the knife to parts of the business since taking the group’s shares to a 10-year low in November 2024. Before Thursday’s deal announcement, shares had risen 19% in the past 12 months.
They ended a joint venture with high street bank Lloyds Banking Group to focus more on their wealthy clients.
Schroders has also exited subsea operations, including in Brazil and Indonesia. Schroders this week announced a partnership with US private equity giant Apollo to develop wealth and retirement products.
The acquisition was announced as Schroders reported its pre-tax profits would rise 21 per cent to £674mn in 2025.
Oldfield has been a supporter of the London stock exchange and last year warned against what he called the “death” of London equities, arguing that listed companies were vital to transparency and accountability.
On Thursday, when he announced the deal under which Schroders would leave the public markets, he said: “We may be concerned about the listing, but our commitment to supporting and running the UK capital markets has not diminished at all.”
