SWIP declined to comment on the matter when contacted by WealthBriefingAsia on the matter. also declined to comment.

Tne report, in the Wall Street Journal, said that Macquarie Group aims to push UK-listed Aberdeen Asset Management out of the race to buy SWIP with a £500 million ($803.7 million) all-cash offer. The report cited unnamed sources.

Aberdeen Asset Management had emerged as a front-runner to buy the fund management arm of . In the case of Lloyds, which has been partly state-owned since the 2008 financial crisis, it is looking to dispose of assets to return to full private ownership and profitability. (The government holds a 39 per cent stake in the bank.) SWIP is headquartered in Edinburgh, and oversees a total of around £146 billion of assets under management (as of 30 June).

SWIP oversees around £146 billion, nearly one-third of which is invested in U.K. stocks. Around 80 per cent of the AuM are managed on behalf of Lloyds and its Scottish Widows insurance division at low margins, the WSJ noted. Such a firm will be less profitable in that sense than, say, a listed alternatives investment firm with higher fees and performance payments.

The bid, if it happens, will also be a sign of how the financial crisis, and developments such as rising regulatory burdens on investment firms, are driving mergers and acquisitions as some businesses seek economies of scale while others look to boost profitability.