Nuveen buys Schroders, ending 226 years of family control over a City of London institution

2026-04-17T18:10:49+00:00
Money Moves, Status: developing

The largest-ever takeover of a UK-listed asset manager creates a $2.5 trillion investment group

Schroders has been a fixture of the City of London since 1800, when Johann Friedrich Schroder opened a trading house that would survive two world wars, the collapse of the British Empire, and the 2008 financial crisis. On April 16, 2026, the Schroder family's 226-year run ended: shareholders voted 99.9% to approve a £9.9 billion ($13.4 billion) cash takeover by Nuveen, the investment arm of the American retirement giant TIAA.

The combined firm will manage nearly $2.5 trillion in assets, making it one of the world's largest active investment managers. Schroders will delist from the FTSE 100, adding to a growing exodus of major companies from the London Stock Exchange. The deal reflects a broader reality reshaping the industry: in an era of fee compression and surging demand for private-market investments, even centuries-old firms face a stark choice between selling or slowly losing ground to larger competitors.