NatWest Group, trading as Royal Bank of Scotland north of the border, has confirmed that it is acquiring wealth manager Evelyn Partners in a deal with an enterprise value of £2.7 billion.
The transaction creates the UK’s biggest private banking and wealth management (PBWM) business, transforming NatWest Group’s savings and investment offering for its 20 million customers.
It represents a milestone in the bank’s recovery from the 2008 financial crash and is its biggest deal since taxpayer bailout.
NatWest Group is also announcing a share buyback of £750 million, continuing its strong track record of capital return to shareholders.
Evelyn, previously known as Tilney Smith & Williamson, will sit alongside NatWest’s private bank Coutts. Last year, Evelyn’s professional services arm was sold to the buyout firm Apax Partners.
The acquisition of Evelyn Partners from its private equity owners Permira and Warburg Pincus accelerates delivery of NatWest Group’s strategy. It further diversifies its income by increasing fee income by c.20% pre-revenue synergies. PBWM becomes about 20% of group customer assets and liabilities.
Commenting on the acquisition, Nat West chief executive Paul Thwaite said: “Bringing together these two leading businesses creates a unique opportunity to provide financial planning, savings and investment services to more families and people across the UK.
“This represents a strategically and financially compelling use of capital, enhancing income diversification and strengthening returns in a high?growth segment, to deliver sustainable long?term value creation.”
Paul Geddes, chief executive of Evelyn Partners, added: “Evelyn Partners is a leading UK wealth manager with more than 180 years of heritage. We are proud to have grown to £69 billion of assets under management, under the stewardship of Permira, investors in the business since 2014, and Warburg Pincus, a minority investor since 2020.”
He added that the deal “marks an exciting new chapter for Evelyn Partners. We both have a long-standing history as highly regarded wealth managers with a client-centric culture.
“Together, we have the scale, resources, and shared vision to provide unparalleled service to our clients. We look forward to working together to build on our success and drive future growth.”
Evelyn Partners has more than 180 years of heritage overseeing £69 billion of assets under management and administration (AUMA) and spans financial planning, discretionary investment management and its direct-to-consumer platform BestInvest.
It has achieved a compound annual growth rate in AUMA in excess of 7%. Its fully integrated model, combining approximately 270 financial planners and 325 investment managers, supports deep client relationships and superior client outcomes.
It generated full year 2025 EBITDA of £179m, meaning that the transaction values Evelyn Partners at the equivalent of 9.7x 2025 EV to EBITDA multiple, including target run-rate cost synergies.
By combining Evelyn Partners’ £69 billion of AUMA with NatWest Group’s £59 billion brings total AUMA to £127 billion and total Customer Assets and Liabilities to £188 billion.
NatWest Group expects the combination of Evelyn Partners with its existing PBWM business to create material shareholder value, including estimated annual run-rate cost synergies of c.£100 million, equivalent to around 10% of the combined PBWM cost base, with costs to achieve of c.£150 million.
The transaction will be funded from existing resources and is expected to reduce NatWest Group’s CET1 ratio by c.130 basis points.
The transaction will strengthen NatWest Group’s capital generation and it will remain well-capitalised. Following the £750 million share buyback announced today, NatWest Group expects its next share buyback announcement to be at its H1 2027 results.
The ordinary dividend payout ratio of around 50% of attributable profits remains unchanged.
The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the summer of 2026.
Ardea Partners International and BofA Securities served as joint lead financial advisers to NatWest. UBS also acted as a financial adviser to NatWest.
On Friday it was announced that from April, NatWest will become Rightmove’s exclusive mortgage lender, powering its Mortgage in Principle service, helping people to understand how much they can borrow to aid their homebuying search.
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