$14 billion! A century of Schroders, selling to the American asset management giant

American asset management firm Nuveen (纽文) will acquire the UK asset management company Schroders, which has a 221-year history, for nearly $13.6 billion. This deal will create a global asset management giant with a management scale of $2.5 trillion.

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

Private markets become a focus for growth

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 staff. Nuveen itself is a subsidiary of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), which acquired Nuveen in 2014.

Nuveen CEO William Huffman said, “This transaction aims to leverage our leading, differentiated public and private markets platform to achieve broader global influence and unlock new growth opportunities for global wealth and institutional investors.”

The combined company will have 17% of its assets allocated to private markets, a rapidly growing sector that BlackRock is also actively expanding. Private markets are also influenced by the AI wave, with many funds investing in private debt purchasing securities of software companies.

According to documents filed by Schroders, the merged group will become one of the world’s largest asset management firms.

Analysts optimistic about the deal prospects

Jefferies’ equity research team, led by Laura Gris Trillo, stated, “This deal combines the distribution advantages of both parties—Nuveen’s scale in the U.S. wealth management channel and TIAA’s pension business, along with Schroders’ strength in platforms across the UK, Europe, and Asia—enabling it to offer more diversified global asset and wealth management solutions.”

The team added, “We believe this transaction is likely to be completed, with a low likelihood of competing bids. From a valuation perspective, we see this as an attractive acquisition price for Schroders’ shareholders; among global peers of similar size, only BlackRock’s deal price is higher.”

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