Mercer agrees to buy Cardano
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UK pensions consultancy Mercer, owned by US-based Marsh McLennan, has reached an agreement to acquire pensions and investment firm Cardano for an undisclosed sum.
The transaction is expected to close towards the end of the year, subject to regulatory approvals. About 550 Cardano employees in London, Nottingham and Rotterdam will join Mercer on completion of the transaction. The firm will be part of Mercer’s wealth business.
Cardano has roughly £52bn in assets under management and is based in the UK and the Netherlands. It owns defined contribution master trust Now Pensions, and offers fiduciary management, investment advisory and liability-driven investing and derivatives solutions to UK and Dutch pension funds, combining direct investment and manager selection.
Mercer has its own DC master trust, with £7.3bn in assets serving 234,000 members from 73 employers, according to evaluator firm Go Group. Now Pensions caters to lower earners and has 2.2m members with 30,000 employers, and assets currently at about £4.4bn. In master trust asset terms, the acquisition will put Mercer in fifth place in the UK, ahead of the Aon Master Trust, which manages £5.5bn, but behind the £17bn LifeSight master trust of WTW.
Benoit Hudon, Mercer’s UK president and chief executive, said: “Our combined talent and capabilities will position Mercer as the pension provider of choice in the UK and the Netherlands. This will allow us to continue to expand globally beyond pensions to serve other large asset owners, including endowments and foundations, family offices and insurers.”
Cardano’s group chief executive Michaël De Lathauwer spoke of the “aligned culture” of the two companies.
De Lathauwer said: “I am thrilled our clients and colleagues will have access to everything Mercer offers, including global resources, a deep bench of investment talent, strategic advice, manager research and alternative investment advice. We look forward to being one multi-disciplinary team and helping our clients navigate the evolving pension and investment landscape.”
The acquisition is the latest in a consolidating advisory and master trust market. Mercer bought pensions consultancy JLT in 2019 for $5.6bn, although a $30bn combination of Aon and WTW – both are insurance broking giants like Marsh McLennan – was scuppered by a US court in 2021.
What will the acquisition mean for the advisory and master trust markets?
