Standard Life Investments is in “exclusive discussions” to acquire London-headquartered Newton Investment Management’s wealth management division, for a price of up to £90 million (about $139 million), The Telegraph reports.

The sale of Newton’s £3.5 billion wealth portfolio “could be announced imminently” and “possibly as early as Thursday”, the report said. Both Standard Life and Newton declined to comment.

As reported by WealthBriefing late last year, other bidders are understood to have included Rathbones and Quilter. The latter firm acquired Cheviot Asset Management last month (view here).

Standard Life is believed to have “entered exclusivity” after numerous rounds of bidding, latest reports say.

Newton Investment Management had £49.6 billion in assets under management at 31 December 2012; Standard Life had £154.9 billion in total funds under management at that date.