NatWest’s £2.7bn deal for wealth management giant

NATWEST beat its banking rivals to snap up wealth manager Evelyn Partners while setting out plans to kick off a new round of shareholder returns.

- By Samuel Norman

The FTSE 100 giant, which returned to privatisation last year, said it had sealed a £2.7billion deal to purchase the firm from private equity owners Permira and Warburg Pincus.

But the news appeared to trouble investors yesterday, with the bank’s stock falling more than 7% to 611.20p.

As part of the acquisition announcement, NatWest revealed it would kick off a fresh £750million buyback but added it expects to announce the next buyback programme at its 2027 half-year results.