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Schroders has agreed to a £9.9bn takeover by US asset manager Nuveen in a deal that would end the independence of one of the City of London’s most historic names.
The group has agreed to a 612p a share offer by Nuveenpart of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America — a retirement savings group — that would create one of the world’s largest asset managers with $2.5tn of assets.
The offer comprises 590p in cash — a 29 per cent premium to Schroders’ closing share price of 456p on Wednesday — and 22p in dividends to be paid by the FTSE 100 group to its shareholders before the deal goes through.
Shares rose 30 per cent to 592p in early trading on Thursday.
The two companies said Schroders’ brand would be retained and London would be its largest office.
The deal comes just months after chief executive Richard Oldfield moved to quash speculation that the Schroder family, which has a 44 per cent holding, was looking to sell the business.
“No, there’s no intention of the family to sell,” Oldfield said in July.
On Thursday, Oldfield said: “This business was not and has never been up for sale . . . This isn’t the outcome of us surreptitiously doing an auction — I don’t think I’d have been able to keep that quiet.”
He said Schroders had agreed the deal because it “saw a huge opportunity to create something powerful and unique” with Nuveen.
Schroders has been attempting to cut costs and boost growth. Before the takeover announcement, the 221-year-old company’s share price had dropped by more than a fifth over the past five years.
Oldfield said the deal was “not about saving money” but driving growth and that Nuveen would “not be shedding heads over and ahead of what we’ve already envisaged in our transformation project”.
He said the transaction would “significantly accelerate our growth plans to create a leading public-to-private platform with enhanced geographic reach”.
The transaction, which will need shareholder approval, is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Oldfield, a former PwC accountant, has taken the knife to parts of the business since taking over in November 2024 with the group’s shares at a 10-year low. The shares had risen 19 per cent in the past 12 months before Thursday’s deal announcement.
He ended a joint venture with high street bank Lloyds Banking Group to concentrate more on its wealthier customers.
Schroders has also exited sub-scale operations, including in Brazil and Indonesia. This week Schroders announced a partnership with US private equity giant Apollo to develop wealth and retirement products.
The takeover was announced as Schroders reported its pre-tax profits rose 21 per cent to £674mn in 2025.
Oldfield has been an advocate for London’s stock market and last year warned against calling the “death” of London equities, arguing that listed companies were vital for transparency and holding management to account.
On Thursday, as he announced the deal that would see Schroders leave the public markets, he said: “We can obsess about the listing, but what is absolutely undiminished is our commitment to supporting and driving the UK capital markets.”