€3.5bn price tag puts Aberdeen off Pioneer bid

Aberdeen Asset Management chief executive Martin Gilbert has revealed that the firm withdrew its bid for Pioneer Global Asset Management due to its excessive €3.5bn price tag.

Mr Gilbert told Bloomberg that the business was instead looking at other acquisitions possibilities.

Pioneer, which has assets under management of €220bn, is owned by Italian bank UniCredit.

“We were through to the second round but we withdrew,” Mr Gilbert told Bloomberg.

“We couldn’t quite afford the 3.5 billion that it’s going to go for. I wish we could find something, but there’s nothing at the moment.”

Mr Gilbert, who was speaking in Abu Dhabi where Aberdeen is launching a Middle Eastern office, says it is advantageous for asset managers not to be owned by a bank to facilitate relationships with wealth managers.

“I keep encouraging banks to sell their asset-management subsidiaries to us and we’ve bought a lot.”