Schroders is expected to win control off the £109bn investment mandate from Scottish Widows.
Earlier this year Lloyds – the parent company of Scottish Widows – withdrew the mandate from Standard Life Aberdeen, claiming the merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management created competition issues.
It has been reported that Schroders is set to take over this mandate, after offering Lloyds the chance to take a stake in its discretionary wealth arm Cazenove Capital.
This puts it ahead of BlackRock, JP Morgan Asset Management and Goldman Sachs who were all reported to have put in bids.
Lloyds announced in February that it was giving Standard Life Aberdeen a year’s notice that the fund would be withdrawn. The management fees on this fund account for 4.4 per cent of Standard Life Aberdeen’s revenue.
The announcement was due to take place in August, but this was slowed down due to arbitration between Lloyds and Standard Life Aberdeen. According to The Financial Times Standard Life Aberdeen is demanding a £250m break fee.
