The takeover has received the support of the Schroder family. – arnd wiegmann/Reuters
Nuveen agreed to buy U.K. asset manager Schroders for $13.5 billion, bolstering its business in Europe with a storied London investment house that dates back more than two centuries.
The deal is the latest between active money managers trying to keep up with passive investment giants like BlackRock and Vanguard as well as private-market specialists. The takeover would also end the independence of one of London’s last remaining major financial dynasties, after American and European banks swooped on the City in the 1980s and 1990s.
Nuveen, the asset-management arm of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, said Thursday the combined group would oversee nearly $2.5 trillion in assets. That would have placed it 10th in the global rankings, just behind Germany’s Allianz, at the end of 2024, according to an annual report by the Thinking Ahead Institute, an industry group. As of late 2025, top-ranked BlackRock managed $14 trillion.
Asset managers have sought to build scale to weather relentless pressure on fees, absorb rising costs and pivot toward higher-margin private assets. In another recent deal, Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management and venture firm General Catalyst agreed to buy Schroders rival Janus Henderson in December for $7.4 billion.
Buying Schroders could enable Nuveen, which has most of its assets in the Americas, to tap the London-based firm’s clients in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Schroders, meanwhile, would be able to sell its funds to Nuveen’s American customers and access TIAA’s large annuities business. Nuveen plans to retain the Schroders brand in London.
Part of their strategy would be to join with insurers to amass more capital to bulk up in private markets, Schroders said. As things stand, about 17% of the combined assets of Nuveen and Schroders are in private markets, compared with 30% in stocks and 25% in fixed income. Private investments tend to generate higher fees and the market has grown rapidly since the 2008 financial crisis.
Under the proposed deal, Schroders’ shareholders would receive up to £6.12, equivalent to about $8.34, for each of their shares, including dividends. That represents a 34% premium to Schroders’ closing price on Wednesday. The stock was up about 29% in early afternoon trading in London.
Lire la suite
The route to approval appears relatively smooth. The Schroders board unanimously recommended the acquisition to shareholders. Owners of about 42% of the company’s shares—mostly held by trusts on behalf of members of the Schroder family—have committed to voting in favor of the deal.
Schroders traces its history back to 1804 when the Schröder brothers—sons of a prominent Hamburg merchant—went into business in the City of London. Initially specializing in the sugar market, they prospered despite a French-led blockade on Britain’s trade with continental Europe during the Napoleonic Wars, according to a book on the dynasty by Richard Roberts.
The company grew into one of the City’s pre-eminent merchant banks, funding trade and governments around the world. It issued bonds for the Confederate states during the American Civil War and funded Japan’s first railway in 1870. After World War I, it started managing investments for clients. The family dropped the German umlaut along the way.
Nuveen is proposing to buy the rump of the firm. Schroders sold its investment bank to Citigroup in 2000 when the U.S. financial powerhouse was trying to kick-start its dealmaking operations in Europe.
Schroders, like other midsize fund managers without a clear specialism, has battled outflows from its traditional mutual-fund business. Efforts to expand into private equity, debt and real estate failed to lift profits, in part because of ballooning costs. Even after a recent rally, the stock was 30% below its 2021 peak as of Wednesday’s close.
“This isn’t about giving up on Schroders. The brand’s going to remain the same,” said Chief Executive Richard Oldfield, who would remain in place if the deal goes through.
The fortunes of Janus Henderson, itself the product of a 2017 trans-Atlantic merger that was supposed to revive the fortunes of two midsize investors, offer a cautionary tale. The asset manager floundered, eventually leading to the Trian-General Catalyst takeover that was announced in December.
TIAA is a venerable name itself, having been founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1918. The association grew into a major annuities and life-insurance provider, especially for college professors and administrators. In 2014, TIAA bought Chicago-based Nuveen Investments, a specialist in municipal bonds, in what was the sector’s biggest deal since the financial crisis, aiming to vault into the big leagues of money management.
Write to Elena Vardon at elena.vardon@wsj.com and Joe Wallace at joe.wallace@wsj.com
Afficher les commentaires