UK's Pollen Street has weighed options including sale, sources say 

By Amy-Jo Crowley and Anousha Sakoui

LONDON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - London-listed private capital firm Pollen Street POLNP.L has recently explored options, including a possible sale, as it seeks to gain scale in the asset management industry, two people familiar with the matter said.

Pollen Street, which has £8.4 billion ($11.22 billion) of assets under management across private equity and private credit strategies, has been working with an adviser, one of the people told Reuters.

Potential buyers include mid-sized private equity firms as well as existing shareholder Wafra, which bought a minority stake in the business in 2020 through its investment platform Capital Constellation, the person added.

Pollen Street had no immediate comment. Wafra declined to comment.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, cautioned that deliberations were at a preliminary stage and there was no certainty a transaction would be pursued.

Consolidation pressure is building across the asset management sector as mid-sized firms increasingly seek scale to compete for investor capital and absorb rising regulatory and operating costs. US asset manager Nuveen earlier this year bought Britain's Schroders SDR.L in a £9.9 billion deal.

Pollen Street had a market capitalisation of £490 million as of Monday's close and its founder and shareholder CEO Lindsey McMurray has a 19% stake, LSEG data shows.

Shares in the company have fallen nearly 12% to 841 pence this year, LSEG data shows, despite it growing operating profit to £64 million in 2025, from £58 million a year earlier.

Formed from the combination in 2022 of Honeycomb Investment Trust and its longstanding manager, Pollen Street Capital, the company's investments include stakes in financial services providers such as insurer Markerstudy, UK challenger bank Shawbrook SHAW.L and Dutch digital lender bunq.

($1 = 0.7485 pounds)