NatWest Group has agreed to buy wealth management firm Evelyn Partners for £2.7 billion, marking the bank’s first major acquisition since returning to private ownership.
The announcement follows reports that the banking group had seen off competition from rival Barclays for the takeover move.
Acquiring Evelyn, one of the UK’s biggest wealth managers, brings together its £69 billion in assets under management with NatWest’s £59 billion.
The London-based firm, which rebranded from Tilney Smith & Williamson in 2022, offers financial planning and investment management and operates consumer platform BestInvest.
The deal is expected to boost NatWest’s fee income by about a fifth and increase the size of its private banking and wealth management business.
The bank estimates that combining Evelyn with its existing business, which includes the private bank Coutts, will lead to annual cost savings of around £100 million, driven by bringing together shared services and technology platforms.
NatWest’s chief executive Paul Thwaite said: “There will be cost and revenue synergies, there will be areas of duplication, but obviously we’ll talk to colleagues and customers along the way, and it’s important to remember that this transaction doesn’t complete until the summer.”
The Evelyn brand will be retained initially but plans will be reviewed in the future.
Mr Thwaite said: “Bringing together these two leading businesses creates a unique opportunity to provide financial planning, savings and investment services to more families and people across the UK.
“At a time when the benefits of saving and investing are increasingly part of the national conversation, we can help customers to make more of their money through a broader range of services, as well as helping to drive growth and investment across the economy.
“This transaction creates the UK’s leading private banking and wealth management business,” he added.
Reports over the weekend suggested that Barclays had also been in the running to buy Evelyn, but had backed away from any bid after NatWest stepped forward.
The deal marks a major acquisition for NatWest which has been privately owned for less than a year.
The Government sold its remaining shares in the bank in May and confirmed a £10.5 billion loss since it was rescued by UK taxpayers during the 2008 financial crisis.
Mr Thwaite said at the time that it was a “significant moment” for the bank that would allow it to “look to the future with confidence, without forgetting the lessons of the past”.
NatWest is due to publish its financial results for 2025 on Friday.
Shares in the bank were down by around 7% on Monday after the deal was announced.
Gary Greenwood, an equity analyst for Shore Capital, said it was “strategically logical” for NatWest to expand its wealth management operations, but that he was “cautious on the deal economics, which rely heavily on synergy delivery to justify the price”.
Erin Sims, financial services senior analyst for RSM UK, said the acquisition helps NatWest expand into the “fast-growing affluent and high-net-worth health segments, building on the existing scale and reputation of the Coutts franchise”.
“A combined NatWest-Evelyn, creating among the largest bank-owned wealth managers, raises competitive pressure on other players in the market,” she added.
