UK's Schroders CEO Harrison plans to retire next year

By Eva Mathews and Iain Withers

LONDON (Reuters) -Schroders said on Wednesday that CEO Peter Harrison plans to retire next year after eight years in the top role, triggering a search for a successor to lead Britain's largest standalone fund manager.

The FTSE 100 group, which manages more than 750 billion pounds ($932.48 billion) in assets, said it would launch a search for a new CEO and anticipated a handover to a successor during 2025.

Many active investors have been under pressure in recent years as competition from low-cost passive rivals, soaring inflation and volatile markets have curbed their earnings.

However, analysts say Schroders has adapted better than some rivals as Harrison steered the group into faster growing areas such as private markets and expanding in wealth management.

Shares in the company have nonetheless fallen more than 15% during Harrison's tenure. Harrison, 57, was Schroders' global investment head before being appointed chief executive in 2016.

Schroders' shares were broadly flat following the news. An analyst, who declined to be named, said Harrison had been a highly regarded CEO and the news was likely to be taken negatively by shareholders.

"I believe that now is the right time for the board to begin the search for my successor and to do so transparently with our stakeholders," Harrison said in a statement, adding that it had been an "immense privilege" to lead the company at which he had started his career as a graduate.

Before rejoining Schroders, Harrison was chairman and CEO of investment boutique RWC Partners, and also had stints at JPMorgan and Deutsche Asset Management, now DWS.

($1 = 0.8043 pounds)

(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru and Iain Withers in London; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Sharon Singleton)