Legal & General (L&G) is plotting a swoop on the workplace pensions provider owned by NatWest Group, the FTSE-100 lender, as its chief executive seeks to grow its share of the UK retirement market.
Sky News has learnt that L&G is among a handful of suitors which have expressed an interest in acquiring Cushon from NatWest.
This weekend, City sources said there was “significant” competition to buy the business and L&G was not certain to be the eventual buyer.
If a deal with L&G does transpire, Cushon would augment a master trust business which manages more than £36.5bn in assets, making it the largest commercial entity of its kind in the UK.
The L&G master trust unit serves 349 employers and 1.9 million members.
Cushon manages assets worth £3.7bn, according to the latest figures provided by NatWest, which bought a controlling stake in the business for £144m two years ago.
The pensions business serves roughly 650,000 members across approximately 21,000 employers.
NatWest owns an 85% stake in Cushon, with the remainder held by the subsidiary’s management.
For NatWest, a sale would reflect chief Paul Thwaite’s determination to refocus the bank – which shed the last vestiges of taxpayer ownership earlier this year – on its core strategic priorities.
These include a bank-wide simplification programme and more active balance sheet and risk management.
Under Mr Thwaite, NatWest has considered a small number of larger-scale acquisitions, including that of Santander UK.
That deal did not progress because of NatWest’s determination to pay a price that would be deemed attractive by its shareholders.
Cushon offers workplace pension products as well as a range of workplace ISAs, including Junior ISAs, Lifetime ISAs and General Investment Accounts.
NatWest’s acquisition of the business was aimed at diversifying its non-interest income by offering Cushon’s products to the bank’s commercial and business banking customers.
For Antonio Simoes, the former HSBC and…
