Schroders is close to agreeing the sale of Benchmark Capital, its financial planning business, to Söderberg & Partners for more than £200m ($264.8m), reported the Financial Times (FT).
The UK asset manager plans to shift resources towards clients with far larger investable assets.
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Benchmark manages £36.9bn in assets under management and supplies services to financial advisers whose clients typically have hundreds of thousands of pounds to invest.
According to sources, Schroders is seeking to place emphasis on ultra-high-net-worth clients.
Those customers are served through Cazenove Capital and the group’s international wealth management operation.
The potential transaction comes only months after Schroders’ board and founding family agreed to a £9.9bn sale to US asset manager Nuveen, which shareholders approved in April.
Under chief executive Richard Oldfield, Schroders has been retreating from peripheral and non-core operations while trying to reduce costs and redirect resources towards its core asset management arm and affluent clients.
If completed, the sale would leave Schroders’ wealth management division comprising Cazenove, which has £83.8bn in assets under management, alongside the international wealth business.
After the Nuveen transaction, there was market speculation that Cazenove, Schroders’ discretionary wealth management business for affluent clients, might also be sold.
But Nuveen and Schroders said in a stock exchange announcement after agreeing their deal that “the existing wealth management business of Schroders, including Cazenove Capital, will be retained,” adding that it formed part of their growth plan.
In October, Schroders ended its involvement in Schroders Personal Wealth, its joint venture with Lloyds Banking Group.
Söderberg provides wealth management, insurance and employee benefits. It has more than £100bn in assets under advice and is backed by private equity groups KKR and TA Associates.
Its wealth management business, active in markets including Sweden, Norway and the UK, has acquired financial advisers in recent months, including firms that had previously worked with SJP.
Schroders and Söderberg declined to comment.
