LONDON, July 2, 2026, 11:01 BST
- NatWest Group Plc (LON:NWG) traded about 1% lower at 672.8p/673.0p at 10:45 BST, against a 0.50% rise in the FTSE 100.
- The £2.7 billion Evelyn Partners deal completed on June 30, more than doubling NatWest’s private banking and wealth AUMA to £127 billion, but it carries an expected CET1 hit of about 130 basis points.
- Wednesday’s 1.89% rise came on 13.7 million shares, about 56% of the 50-day average volume, leaving Thursday’s pullback a cleaner test of demand.
NatWest Group Plc (LON:NWG) slipped in regular London trading on Thursday, giving back part of the previous session’s gain as the market put a price on the bank’s newly completed push into wealth management.
The stock was quoted at 672.8p/673.0p, down 0.97%, at 10:45 BST. The FTSE 100 was up 0.50% at the same snapshot. The London Stock Exchange was in a normal Thursday session, with July 2 listed as an 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. trading day.
| Thursday snapshot | Move/level | Read-through |
|---|---|---|
| NatWest Group (LON:NWG) | 672.8p/673.0p, -0.97% | Lower after Evelyn completion |
| FTSE 100 | +0.50% | Broader blue chips firmer |
| FTSE 350 | +0.40% | UK large/mid-cap market firmer |
| FTSE 250 | -0.43% | Domestic mid-caps weaker |
Share snapshots are delayed and drawn from Barclays Research Centre for NatWest and the UK indices.
The data point that matters is not the deal size alone. NatWest said Evelyn Partners had £69 billion of assets under management and administration at the end of 2025. Added to NatWest’s £59 billion, the combined private banking and wealth unit would have £127 billion of AUMA, a rise of roughly 115% from NatWest’s starting base. Fee income, before revenue synergies, is expected to rise by about 20%.
| Evelyn deal metric | Company figure | Investor issue |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise value | £2.7 billion | Cash cost and goodwill deduction |
| Combined PBWM AUMA | £127 billion | Scale more than doubles |
| Fee income uplift | About 20% before revenue synergies | Smaller than AUMA uplift |
| Annual cost synergies | About £100 million | Needs integration delivery |
| Costs to achieve | About £150 million | Equal to 1.5 years of target annual savings |
| CET1 impact | About 130 bps | Capital return headroom narrows |
| Next guidance update | July 31 interim results | Evelyn impact enters 2026 outlook |
NatWest’s first-quarter capital generation was 65 basis points before distributions. On that simple measure, the Evelyn deal absorbs about two Q1s of capital generation before any benefits show in the run-rate numbers. NatWest reported a 14.3% CET1 ratio at the end of March and said its previous 2026 guidance excluded Evelyn.
Chief Executive Paul Thwaite said after completion: “Together, we are now the UK’s leading Private Banking and Wealth Management business.” The bank said it would give more detail on the deal’s effect on full-year guidance with interim results on July 31. NatWest Group
That leaves the shares trading on execution risk. The stock had rallied 1.89% to £6.80 on Wednesday, even as the FTSE 100 fell 0.18% to 10,478.34, but the volume was thin compared with recent history. It also closed 3.66% below its 52-week high of £7.05, reached on Feb. 4.
The wider bank tape was firmer. Barclays PLC (LON:BARC) was up 0.43% at 517.1p/517.2p on Hargreaves Lansdown’s delayed quote, while Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LON:LLOY) was up 0.40% at 112.5p/112.6p on AJ Bell’s delayed quote.
Analysts were split on the deal when it was announced in February. RBC Capital Markets analyst Benjamin Toms said NatWest had filled a gap in its “affluent wealth offering”. Reuters reported at the time that Jefferies saw strategic sense but said the valuation could hit earnings per share by 2% through 2028 versus no deal. Reuters
The target-price cushion is not wide. MarketScreener data showed an average analyst target of 748.2p, about 10.09% above the last close used in its model, with a low target of 635p. That low target sits below Thursday’s late-morning quote.
A second overhang is tax. The Guardian reported on Thursday that UK bankers and unions were preparing for a fight over a possible bank tax push, and said the Trades Union Congress estimated £9 billion could be raised over four years by reversing previous bank surcharge cuts. NatWest reported £7.7 billion of pre-tax profit in 2025, according to the report.
NatWest’s July 31 numbers now have to answer two market questions: how fast Evelyn can add fee income, and how much capital the group can still send back to shareholders after taking the deal onto the balance sheet.
