Analysis: Schroders Flags Big Ambitions

Tom Burroughes

22 September 2020

Schroders’ freshly-inked purchase of , the London-based multi-family office, pushes the former more fully into the ultra-high net worth space. And the timing is interesting when rumours abound of big-brand banks thinking of tying the knot.

The acquisition of Sandaire – financial terms aren’t disclosed – is designed to put Schroders into the “top three” of UK firms across the whole spectrum from mass retail through to UHNW business, Schroders told this publication yesterday. Sandaire oversaw about £2.2 billion ($2.81 billion) of assets under management as of the end of June. That contrasts with more than £525 billion across all of Schroders’ business lines. Within its wealth business, .

“Asia is also a priority area of growth for us, partly because the level of wealth is growing there faster than anywhere else in the world and partly because Schroders has an excellent franchise in Asia and we acquired last year Thirdrock, a business focused on advising wealthy families. We aim to grow our Singapore business through more advisor hires,” the firm said.

The Sandaire deal adds to this narrative, the firm continued.

“The acquisition will enable us to develop a unique global offering for wealthy families from our offices in Asia, Switzerland and the Channel Islands as well as from the UK. It will be a unique combination drawing on Sandaire’s boutique-level service and specialist expertise, Cazenove’s leading UK position in advising wealthy families and Schroders’ global investment expertise and family ownership - Schroders is itself a multi-generational family business founded over 200 years ago and still 47 per cent controlled by the family,” it said.

And Schroders hinted that there may be more to come by way of acquisitions and partnerships.

“We have a major strategic commitment to growing our wealth management business at Schroders where we currently look after £65 billion of client assets. We will pursue that both through hires and acquisitions,” it said.