NatWest and RBC are among potential suitors for the UK wealth manager as consolidation accelerates across the sector

LONDON — Private‑equity owners Permira and Warburg Pincus are preparing to launch a sale of Evelyn Partners within months, targeting strategic suitors including NatWest and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), according to people familiar with the plans. Advisers at Evercore are lining up a process that could value the business at about £2.5bn, making it one of the largest European wealth‑management deals of the year.

Evelyn sits squarely in the slipstream of a consolidating industry. Higher interest rates have lifted deposit income but also sharpened the appeal of fee‑based revenues that move more with markets than with the rate cycle. For banks and buyout funds alike, scaled wealth platforms offer recurring income, sticky client relationships, and cross‑selling potential. By mid‑2025, industry trackers were counting more than a hundred asset‑ and wealth‑management transactions across Europe — up on last year’s pace — and pointing to a market where scale helps absorb rising regulatory and technology costs.

Formed through the combination of Tilney, Smith & Williamson and Bestinvest, Evelyn has spent the past two years simplifying to a pure‑play wealth manager. Last year it sold the Smith & Williamson professional services arm to Apax and later offloaded its fund‑solutions unit to Thesis — moves designed to streamline the story for prospective owners. Today the group manages roughly £62bn–£63bn of client assets across discretionary portfolios, financial planning and its Bestinvest direct‑to‑consumer platform.

Permira first backed the business a decade ago and brought in Warburg Pincus as a minority investor in 2020. A London listing was long considered, but a trade sale now appears the cleaner route given the breadth of potential strategic buyers and the valuation the sellers hope to achieve. People close to the talks expect an initial, tightly controlled auction focused on a handful of large banks and North American wealth firms, with room for private‑equity bids should pricing and financing line up.

NatWest’s interest is notable. In May the UK government sold its remaining stake in the bank, returning the group to full private ownership and giving management more room to pursue bolt‑on growth. Wealth is a natural adjacency for a lender with millions of retail and commercial customers. Owning Evelyn would deliver a nationwide network of advisers and investment managers, plus the Bestinvest brand — assets that could be plugged into NatWest’s distribution, data and payments rails. The strategic case is straightforward: a larger wealth arm would diversify earnings and deepen relationships with affluent clients.

Yet integration risk is real. Cultural fit between high‑street banks and partnership‑minded wealth houses can be awkward. Advisers may bristle at changes to pay plans, product shelves or client‑segmentation rules. Technology choices — particularly around custody, reporting and model‑portfolio construction — can be fraught and expensive to unwind. NatWest would also need to navigate conduct and suitability expectations that are rising under the UK’s Consumer Duty, as well as an evolving advice‑and‑guidance framework that is still being defined by UK regulators.

RBC, by contrast, has already planted a large flag in the UK market. Its £1.6bn purchase of Brewin Dolphin in 2022 created RBC Brewin Dolphin, a top‑tier discretionary manager. Adding Evelyn would knit together two of Britain’s largest franchises and deepen RBC’s foothold in London and the regions. The industrial logic is easy to sketch — shared research, product origination, custody and middle‑office functions — but antitrust and client‑choice questions would feature in any review, and management would need a credible plan to retain senior advisers across both businesses.

Other potential suitors are likely to hover around the data room. US‑based Raymond James, which has expanded steadily in the UK, is frequently cited by bankers, while long‑horizon investors such as Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan have shown appetite for cash‑generative, regulated financial assets. Interest from additional private‑equity sponsors cannot be ruled out, though the sellers’ preference is understood to be a strategic home that can pay up for synergies.

Valuation will be the fulcrum. A price around £2.5bn would imply a mid‑teens multiple of adjusted earnings — broadly consistent with premium UK peers and recent European prints for scaled, advice‑led managers. Bulls will point to positive net inflows and improving operating leverage as integration costs fade. Bears will highlight regulatory cost creep, continued fee pressure, and the risk that investment markets wobble just as a new owner takes the keys.

For clients, any deal would likely feel evolutionary rather than abrupt — provided advisers remain in place and service levels hold. The first changes usually happen behind the scenes: consolidation of custody and dealing venues, standardisation of client reporting, tweaks to cash‑sweep rates and the addition of new deposit or lending products. Larger groups can often pass through savings on technology and operations, though truly bespoke mandates may see less benefit.

The auction will double as a referendum on how universal banks view wealth in 2025. After years of retrenchment following the global financial crisis, lenders have leaned back into stable, fee‑based businesses to offset volatility in trading and lending. NatWest’s reprivatisation reduces political constraints, but it also raises the bar on capital discipline. RBC, meanwhile, has balance‑sheet capacity and momentum in UK wealth after integrating Brewin Dolphin. Both would have to persuade Evelyn’s advisers and clients that the service culture will be protected through any transition.

Timing is critical. With UK base rates widely expected to drift lower into 2026, banks are preparing for net‑interest margins to compress from recent highs, which makes wealth revenues more valuable in the group mix. Equity markets have been supportive enough to lift client assets but uneven enough to keep many IPOs on ice — another reason a private sale may trump a listing for Evelyn’s owners. Evercore’s mandate suggests the sellers want to move before the window narrows or geopolitical noise injects friction into markets already sensitive to headlines.

In a fragmented market where many regional and boutique firms struggle to fund technology and regulatory change, scale remains a powerful — if imperfect — answer. Bigger platforms can spread fixed costs, invest in better onboarding and advice tools, and broaden multi‑asset offerings. The UK’s emerging advice‑and‑guidance regime could expand the addressable market if firms learn to segment service economically across full advice, guided solutions and execution‑only channels. Whoever ends up owning Evelyn will need continued investment in people, platforms and risk controls to meet rising expectations.

If the timetable holds, information memoranda should reach shortlisted bidders within weeks of the launch, with initial non‑binding offers to follow soon after. A preferred buyer could emerge by late autumn, setting up completion in 2026. Whatever the outcome, the process will be closely watched as a marker for where value is clearing in UK wealth — and how far the current consolidation wave still has to run.

Sources:

— Financial Times, Aug. 15, 2025: ‘Evelyn Partners to target NatWest and RBC as potential buyers.’

— The Times, Aug. 15, 2025: ‘Wealth manager Evelyn Partners to be put up for sale.’

— Financial News (Dow Jones), Aug. 15, 2025: ‘Evelyn Partners’ private equity backers target NatWest and RBC for potential sale.’

— Reuters, Jul. 28, 2025: ‘Buyout groups explore sale of British wealth manager Evelyn.’

— HM Treasury, May 30, 2025: ‘Government completes exit from NatWest.’

— RBC press release, Sept. 27, 2022: ‘Royal Bank of Canada completes acquisition of Brewin Dolphin.’