Schroders has agreed to be acquired by US asset manager Nuveen in a £9.9 billion cash deal that will end more than 200 years of independence for the London-listed investment firm and bring the two companies together to manage around £1.8 trillion in assets worldwide.
The deal will create one of the world’s largest fund managers.
The board of the UK asset management group said on Thursday that it intends to recommend the offer to shareholders, having agreed terms under which investors would receive 590 pence per share in cash together with up to 22 pence in dividends, valuing the company at 612 pence per share. The proposal represents a significant premium to the firm’s most recent closing price.
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The takeover has the support of the Schroder family, which controls approximately 41 per cent of the shares through a series of trusts, providing crucial backing for the deal.
Upon completion, expected in the fourth quarter of 2026, the combined business will oversee close to $2.5 trillion (£1.8 trillion) in assets across institutional and wealth channels. Nuveen, the investment arm of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA), said it intends to retain the Schroders brand and maintain London as the group’s principal base outside the US.
Founded in 1804, Schroders manages over £800 billion in assets, according to 2025 figures, and has long been regarded as the UK’s largest standalone listed asset manager.
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In recent years, however, the firm has faced scrutiny over cost levels and growth in parts of its private markets division, while its share price performance has lagged over a five-year period.
Schroders chair Dame Elizabeth Corley said the combined group will ‘bring together two successful firms with shared values and highly complementary strengths to create a new global leader in public-to-private investment management.’ She added that the transaction will ‘deliver an attractive premium in cash to our shareholders’ and said the board of Schroders is confident that this is the ‘right step’ for shareholders and clients.
Richard Oldfield, who became group chief executive at Schroders in 2024, is expected to continue in his role following completion of the transaction, with London serving as the enlarged group’s non-US headquarters.
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He said: ‘In a competitive landscape where scale can help deliver benefits, in Nuveen we see a partner that shares our values, respects the culture we have built and will create exciting opportunities for our clients and people.’
For Nuveen, the acquisition expands its footprint in Europe and deepens its capabilities across public and private market strategies. Industry-wide pressures, such as fee compression, regulatory demands and rising technology costs, have accelerated consolidation among active managers seeking scale and geographic reach.
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‘This transaction is about unlocking new growth opportunities for wealth and institutional investors around the world by giving our leading, differentiated public-to-private platform a broader global presence,’ Nuveen chief executive William Huffman said.
The deal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval and is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Advisers to the transaction include BNP Paribas and Clifford Chance for Nuveen, while Wells Fargo and Barclays are acting for Schroders.
