Schroders shares linger close to Nuveen bid after Benchmark sale leaves 1.7% gap
Schroders PLC finished Monday unchanged at 587p. The firm is selling its UK advice arm Benchmark to Sweden’s Söderberg & Partners. Shares barely moved on the news, which has more to do with the Nuveen bid hanging over the stock. Schroders is now trading more like a deal spread than a typical asset manager. The key number isn’t the headline “up to 612p” bid. Nuveen’s agreed deal has Schroders holders getting 590p cash and up to 22p in dividends. Of that, 15p was the final payout, ex-div March 12, paid April 23, according to Hargreaves Lansdown. So really, it’s 590p cash plus a likely 7p interim, if that dividend gets declared before the deal completes. At 587p, that’s a 1.7%