Schroders sale raises investor fears over London listings

Shortly after Schroders announced a £9.9bn sale to the US asset manager Nuveen this week, the FTSE-listed company sought to soothe surprised investors by releasing a choreographed video statement from its chief executive Richard Oldfield.

“We want to reassure you that nothing changes,” he said. “Continuity is fundamental… as we move forward as a combined business.”

Despite assurances that the family brand, founded in 1804, will remain, many in the Square Mile say the transaction reveals change is already afoot; both in terms of the competitiveness of the UK as a listing destination, and of the type of asset management in which Schroders has specialised. “The really big elephant here is that passive management is just killing active managers,” says a source close to the company. “It’s all about scale, and the fact that fees keep falling.”

Intense competition from larger US rivals, like BlackRock and Vanguard, offering cheap, index-tracking products has forced Schroders to make cost reductions, while its share price has dropped by a fifth in five years. One source says that as a result, the mood internally was “unhappy” and that the £175m allocated to “lock-in” pay packages would not be enough to stop some talent departing post-takeover.

A Schroder’s spokesperson said the company does not intend to make any material reduction in headcount beyond what it previously set out.

Nuveen’s offer of 612p a share, if accepted by shareholders, would add significant scale, creating one of the world’s largest active asset managers with $2.5tn of assets under management. Not quite top 10, but still a major player, with a strong client base on both sides of the Atlantic.

The re’s no doubt that t decision to delist from the FTSE 100 will ruffle feathers, not least with the Treasury which has been close with Oldfield over the past year. Not three months ago, the chief executive was warning against calling “the death” of London’s equity market. This Thursday he said “if the only way we measure the competitiveness of London is through the Stock Exchange, we’re being very myopic”.

At the end of 2025 UK fixed income and equities accounted for roughly 3% of Schroder’s total of £823bn of assets under management.

Schroders is not the only UK firm to be eyed by US investors hunting a bargain. Last year activist investor Nelson Peltz moved to acquire UK-headquartered Janus Henderson, while Elliott Management this week disclosed an agitating stake in LSEG, owner of London’s main bourse. Change is coming, whether London likes it or not.

Photograph by Lam Yik/Bloomberg via Getty Images