Cardano Group agreed to acquire workplace defined contribution multiemployer plan NOW: Pensions, London, from Danish pension provider ATP, a spokeswoman said.
The purchase price wasn't disclosed, the spokeswoman said, adding the acquisition is expected to be completed later this year, after NOW gets permission from the Pensions Regulator to operate in the U.K. DC market. Master trusts, as multiemployer plans are known in the U.K., are required to submit an application before the end of March under new rules.
It's Cardano's first U.K. master trust acquisition and will boost the Dutch consulting firm's assets under management to £25 billion ($36.7 billion).
"We believe our combination of pensions risk management and investment skills, together with NOW: Pensions' enormous potential, creates a new force across the U.K. pensions landscape," Cardano co-CEOs Theo Kocken and Michael De Lathauwer said in a news release.
Bo Foged, interim CEO of the 785 billion kroner ($120 billion) Hilleroed-based ATP, said in the release: "In view of ATP's continued strategic focus on simplification and consolidation, we have found this to be the right time to exit the investment and sell the company to a new and dedicated owner who will take (NOW: Pensions) into the next phase of development in the U.K. market."
NOW: Pensions, with £600 million in assets, provides DC arrangements to 30,000 businesses and 1.7 million participants in the U.K.
