Schroders may consider an acquisition to accelerate expansion of its U.S. asset management business, and it has up to about %A3;800 million ($1.5 billion) available to pay for any potential targets, CEO Michael Dobson said in a conference call today. Schroder Investment Management North America makes up about 12% of Schroders' entire business and is predominantly retail.
"The U.S. is an area where we want to do more," Mr. Dobson said. "We will grow organically there, but if we find something that can accelerate that, we would be interested."
Globally, the company boosted its assets under management by 4.8% in the three months ended March 31 to %A3;128.4 billion, partly as a result of strong stock market performance and a %A3;1.9 billion inflow from its retail business, according to financial reports released today. Institutional outflows for the quarter were %A3;2.3 billion, due to a continuing trend to specialist mandates from balanced portfolios.
Schroders also announced the May 3 completion of its acquisition of NewFinance Capital, a hedge fund-of-funds manager, for $101 million and another $41 million contingent upon certain revenue targets in the next four years.
