(Reuters) -Lloyds Banking Group will take control of Schroders’ 49.9% stake in their wealth management joint venture after the business missed growth targets, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The FT report said Lloyds and Schroders are set to abandon the wealth management venture, Schroders Personal Wealth (SPW), which targeted the “mass affluent” section of the market.
When asked by Reuters about the FT report, a Lloyds’ spokesperson said: “We are building an end-to-end wealth offering, from execution-only digital investments and pensions to full financial planning and advice through SPW.”
The spokesperson gave no further details.
Schroders declined to comment on the report. SPW did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The partnership, launched in 2019 by Lloyds’ ex-CEO António Horta-Osório and Schroders’ former chief Peter Harrison, started with 13 billion pounds ($17.50 billion) of assets transferred from Lloyds, which had grown to 15.7 billion pounds under management by December 2024.
Taking full control would give Lloyds greater oversight and flexibility to sell a broader range of products to affluent customers, a person familiar with the matter told the FT.
In July, Lloyds reported a 5% rise in first-half profit, driven by higher income from mortgages and unsecured consumer lending despite broader UK economic challenges.
($1 = 0.7431 pounds)
(Reporting by Raechel Thankam Job in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Jane Merriman)
