800 jobs to go in creation of ‘Standard Life Aberdeen’

News of planned job loses was announced as it was also confirmed that the combined group will be headquartered in Scotland and continue to have offices around the world.

In joint statement the companies said that some of the job losses will come from “natural turnover” and will aim to “minimise the number of compulsory redundancies” that take place as it targets savings of save £200m a year once the merger is complete.

The firms said: “At this time it is estimated that the integration and restructuring will result in a phased reduction of approximately 800 roles from the total global headcount of the combined group as at 31 December 2016 of approximately 9,000 over the three-year integration period,” it said.

It is expected that the cost of integrating will set them back around £320m up-front.

Prospectus documents released last night by Aberdeen and Standard Life outlined plans to combine premises where both organisations already operate from multiple locations near each other.

The merged business will be renamed Standard Life Aberdeen and will operate under branding drawn from both the Standard Life Group and the Aberdeen Group.

It is expected that the combined group will be reorganised to bring Aberdeen and Standard’s investment functions together into a single investment group that will be given the interim name Aberdeen Standard Life Investments Limited, pending a review of the global brand strategy.

Both companies have agreed on a 16-strong board made up of an equal number of Standard Life and Aberdeen directors.

Standard Life chairman Gerry Grimstone will head the board of the new entity, with Standard Life and Aberdeen chief executives Keith Skeoch and Martin Gilbert to become co-chief executives.

In a trading update Standard said it had seen net investment inflows of £3.1bn in the first quarter of 2017, excluding its Global Absolute Return Strategies (GARS) which saw outflows of £2.8bn.

Workplace net inflows stood at £400m.

Standard Life chief executive Keith Skeoch said: “We have made further progress in the first three months of 2017 with inflows from our growth channels, including notable growth in flows in our pensions and savings business. This has been supported by strong investment performance over the short and long-term.

“We continue to benefit from diversifying our sources of assets, and this strategy will be further enhanced by our proposed merger with Aberdeen. Standard Life remains confident about capitalising on industry trends, to meet the evolving needs of our clients and customers and to create long-term value for Standard Life shareholders.”