$14 billion! Century-old Schroders sold to American asset management giant

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U.S. asset management company Nuveen will acquire the 221-year-old British asset manager Schroders for nearly $13.6 billion, creating a global asset management giant with $2.5 trillion in assets under management.

Chicago-based Nuveen announced on Thursday that it will acquire this long-established London asset manager at a price of up to 612 pence per share, with a total valuation of about £9.9 billion. Schroders’ UK stock soared 29% to 590 pence in early trading Thursday.

Private Markets Become Growth Focus

Nuveen stated it will retain the Schroders brand, with London serving as the non-U.S. headquarters and largest office of the merged group, employing about 3,100 people. Nuveen itself is a subsidiary of the U.S. Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA), which acquired Nuveen in 2014.

Nuveen CEO William Huffman said: "This deal is intended to unlock new growth opportunities for global wealth and institutional investors by expanding the global reach of our leading, differentiated public and private market platform."

The merged company will have 17% of its assets allocated to private markets, a fast-growing field in which BlackRock is also actively expanding. Private markets are affected by the AI wave, with many funds investing in private debt having purchased securities from software companies.

According to filings submitted by Schroders, the merged group will become one of the world's largest asset management companies.

Analysts Optimistic About Deal Prospects

Jefferies’ equity analyst team, led by Laura Gris Trillo, commented: "This transaction combines the distribution strengths of both sides—Nuveen’s scale in U.S. wealth management channels and TIAA’s pension business, along with Schroders’ platform strengths in the UK, Europe, and Asia—enabling it to offer more globally diversified asset and wealth management solutions."

The team added: "We believe this deal is very likely to close, with a low possibility of a bidding war. From a valuation perspective, we consider this an attractive acquisition price for Schroders shareholders; among global peers of similar scale, only BlackRock’s deal price is higher."

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