NatWest Group has instructed advisers to push the sale of NatWest Cushon, the company in which it holds an 85 per cent stake, according to media reports.
Sky News has cited ‘City sources’ detailing talks with a number of potential buyers as mid-tier providers scramble to build the scale required to meet planned government size thresholds required to participate in the auto-enrolment pensions market.
NatWest Cushon has around £3bn of assets. It could be an attractive acquisition for a competitor looking to scale up because of its existing assets, future asset growth potential and modern technology, which includes workplace savings and member engagement functionality.
Tough new government scale tests require providers to have assets of £10bn by 2030 and a clear plan of reaching £25bn by 2035.
Nine DC workplace pension providers had assets in excess of £25bn at the end of 2024 — the minimum AUM threshold the government has proposed for multi-employer schemes, according to the Corporate Adviser Master Trust & GPP Defaults report, out today. But only five of these schemes have £25bn in one default fund or strategy.
The report shows that at 31.12.24 The Lewis Workplace Pension Trust, Penfold, NatWest, TPT Retirement Solutions, Now: Pensions, Smart Pension, SEI and Hargreaves Lansdown all had less than £10bn of total bundled DC assets.
NatWest Cushon bought its stake in Cushon, which has around 650,000 members, for £144m two years ago. That acquisition was made when Alison Rose was CEO of NatWest Group and Peter Flavel was CEO of Coutts. They were replaced by Paul Thwaite and Emma Crystal after Nigel Farage accused Coutts of closing his account because of his political views.
A NatWest Group spokesperson said: “We do not comment on speculation. Our focus remains on delivering for our customers.”
