NatWest Group announces the acquisition of Evelyn Partners for £2.7 billion enterprise value. This transaction creates the UK’s leading private banking and wealth management business.

NatWest Group plc announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Evelyn Partners from funds advised by Permira and Warburg Pincus for £2.7 billion enterprise value. The Transaction creates the UK’s leading Private Banking and Wealth Management business (“PBWM”), transforming NatWest Group’s savings and investment offering for its 20 million customers.

„It accelerates delivery of NatWest Group’s strategy, further diversifying  income by increasing fee income by c.20% pre-revenue synergies.  It also increases NatWest Group’s exposure to a high growth, capital light segment, with PBWM becoming c.20% of group customer assets and liabilities. NatWest Group is also announcing a share buyback of £750 million, continuing its strong track record of capital return to shareholders.” – according to the press release.

Commenting on the acquisition, Paul Thwaite, Chief Executive of NatWest Group, 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 transaction creates the UK’s leading Private Banking and Wealth Management business, delivering the scale and capabilities needed to succeed in a market with significant growth potential. 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.”

Evelyn Partners is a leading UK wealth manager with more than 180 years of heritage overseeing £69 billion of Assets Under Management and Administration (“AUMA”). Evelyn Partners offers an integrated wealth management proposition spanning financial planning, discretionary investment management and its direct-to-consumer platform BestInvest.

Evelyn Partners is led by a high-calibre management team with a proven track record of delivery, demonstrated by 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.

Evelyn Partners 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.

NatWest Group also intends to deliver significant revenue synergies through bringing Evelyn Partners’ leading financial planning and investment management solutions together with NatWest Group’s full suite of banking and wealth management solutions to our 20 million customers.

The Transaction is expected to be accretive to NatWest Group’s growth and its Return on Tangible Equity in the first year of ownership and to deliver returns greater than generated through a share buyback.

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.