Deal creates one of the world's largest active manager shops

New York-based Nuveen, which entered the New Zealand market last year plans to acquire Schroders for £9.9 billion.

The deal will create one of the largest active global asset management firms in the world with US$2.5 trillion of assets under. management.

"The combined group will operate with significant scale and capabilities in the world’s largest financial centres with a presence in more than 40 markets in total," Nuveen chief executive William Huffman says in a release announcing the deal.

“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.”

He says there is compelling strategic rationale for the deal. 

"Nuveen and Schroders have an investment-led, client-centric and collaborative culture with well-matched capabilities across public and private markets. Together, Nuveen and Schroders will design new solutions to meet wealth and institutional clients’ increasingly diverse needs.

"This will include a breadth of capabilities across equities, fixed income, multi-asset, infrastructure, private capital, real estate, and natural capital, which together with the wealth management business, would provide more ways to build resilient portfolios through a single platform."

Heathcote principal Clayton Coplestone says;; "Importantly, this development does not change the level of service or engagement you receive from either manager. In fact, the combined scale, expanded global reach, and deeper investment capability have the potential to deliver meaningful long‑term benefits to investors."

It is expected that for at least 12 months following the completion of the Transaction, the Schroders group will continue to operate as a standalone business within the wider Nuveen group.

Both Nuveen and Schroders will be in New Zealand next month as part of Heathcote’s Meet the Managers Roadshow, presenting their latest market insights and outlooks across the country. 

Completion remains subject to shareholder approval and the usual antitrust and regulatory processes, with closing expected later this year. The boards of both companies have unanimously agreed to the transaction.

As Schroders is a UK-listed company, the transaction is being conducted under the requirements of the UK Takeover Code.