Schroders Buyer Is Following the Money Out of America

Much of the attention on Nuveen’s £10 billion ($14 billion) purchase of the British finance house Schroders Plc has focused on what it means for the City of London. Just as interesting is why a not-for-profit American fund manager has bought an overseas business when its domestic economic and investment outlook has rarely been rosier.
Diversification beyond the US is the rationale. Nuveen’s parent, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, already spreads its money across everything from bonds and stocks to real estate and fashionable “alternative” assets such as private credit. Moving beyond the North American homeland may well catch on among peers, particularly the pension and endowment funds that manage many trillions of retirement and legacy monies.