The NatWest Group — formerly known as the Royal Bank of Scotland — has made its first significant deal since shedding the last vestiges of its UK government bail-out investment.
The bank has reached an agreement to acquire Evelyn Partners from funds advised by Permira and Warburg Pincus for a figure of £2.7bn. The deal will create the UK’s leading Private Banking and Wealth Management business, transforming NatWest Group’s savings and investment offering for its 20 million customers.
In its announcement, the bank said this will accelerate delivery of NatWest Group’s strategy, further diversifying income by increasing fee income by c.20 per cent pre-revenue synergies.
It also increases NatWest Group’s exposure to a high growth, capital light segment, with PBWM becoming c.20 per cent of group customer assets and liabilities.
NatWest Group has also announcing a share buyback of £750m, continuing its track record of capital return to shareholders.
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. We look forward to welcoming our new clients and working with our colleagues at Evelyn Partners to transform the services our 20 million customers across the Group can expect from us.
“At a time when the benefits of saving and investing are increasingly part of the national conversation, we can help customers to make more of their money through a broader range of services, as well as helping to drive growth and investment across the economy.
He said the deal will create 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. It accelerates delivery of NatWest Group’s strategy and positions us to realise our longer-term ambitions”.
“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 £69bn of assets under management, under the stewardship of Permira, investors in the business since 2014, and Warburg Pincus, a minority investor since 2020. We are delighted to join NatWest Group, which 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 is a UK wealth manager with more than 180 years of heritage overseeing £69bn 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. The company has approximately 270 financial planners and 325 investment managers and generated full year 2025 EBITDA of £179m, meaning that the transaction values Evelyn Partners at the equivalent of 9.7 x 2025 EV to EBITDA multiple.
The deal brings together two established institutions with a shared commitment to supporting clients at every stage of their lives, under the leadership of Emma Crystal, Chief Executive PBWM. By combining Evelyn Partners’ £69bn of AUMA with NatWest Group’s £59bn brings total AUMA to £127bn and total Customer Assets and Liabilities to £188bn.
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.£100m, equivalent to around 10 per cent of the combined PBWM cost base, with costs to achieve of c.£150m.
