Schroders spent months exploring a possible bid for M&G to create a UK fund house with over $1trn in assets under management, according to reports.
Speaking anonymously to Bloomberg, it was explained that Schroders had been working with a partner earlier this year and explored the idea of a breakup of M&G, carving its asset management operations from its pension and insurance unit.
However, the idea was recently abandoned after the bounceback in M&G's share price made the firm too expensive to continue pursuing an acquisition.
The firm's share price has more than doubled since its 2020 lows and currently sits at 229.20, giving M&G a market value of $8bn.
As such, the deliberations by Schroders never led to any formal discussions with M&G.
A deal for M&G would have marked the largest targeting a financial services company in recent years and the largest in Schroders' history, replacing its £424m purchase of Cazenove Capital in 2013.
