Merger of Aberdeen Asset Management and Standard Life completes

The new firm said the deal, which was first announced on 6 March, will “harnesses Standard Life’s and Aberdeen’s complementary, market leading investment and savings capabilities”.

A statement from Standard Life Aberdeen, as it will be known, said the tie-up “creates an investment group with strong brands, leading institutional and wholesale distribution franchises, market leading platforms and access to long-standing, strategic partnerships globally”.

The new firm claimed that by combining the two companies’ strong balance sheets, the new group will have greater ability to invest for growth and innovate.

The heavyweight’s investment business, Aberdeen Standard Investments, will manage £583 billion (€641 billion, US$758 billion) of assets and “will retain a long standing commitment to active investment management with a similar investment culture and approach, underpinned by fundamental research”.

It immediately becomes one of the largest active managers in Europe, offering clients access to a comprehensive range of developed and emerging market equities and fixed income, multi-asset, real estate and alternatives solutions. As a combined business it will have over 1,000 investment professionals based around the world.

The Group’s pensions and savings business, Standard Life, has around 4.5 million customers and is based primarily in the UK, with operations in Ireland and Germany.

Overall, Standard Life Aberdeen, which will be headquartered in Edinburgh, will have offices in 50 cities around the world, servicing clients in 80 countries. It has a market cap of over £11 billion (€12.1 billion, US$14.3 billion).

Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management said prior to completion of their merger that they expect to cut almost 10 per cent of their combined workforce of 9,000 during the course of the three-years immediately after today.

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 £200 million a year from when the merger was completed.

Keith Skeoch, Chief Executive of Standard Life Aberdeen, said: “Today marks the culmination of many months of hard work and preparation by our business, and the beginning of a new chapter in our history as Standard Life Aberdeen plc. Our leadership team is in place and we have full business readiness from day one. Our people have worked exceptionally well together to complete the merger on schedule and we would like to thank them for this. The co-operation and collaboration we have witnessed bodes well for the on-going integration of the business, and in helping us create a world-class investment company for our clients, shareholders and our people.”

Martin Gilbert, chief executive of Standard Life Aberdeen, added: “As ever our priority remains the delivery of strong investment performance and the highest level of client service. The merger deepens and broadens our investment capabilities, and gives us a stronger and more diverse range of investment management skills as well as significant scale across asset classes and geographies. We believe this will enable us to deliver an even better proposition and service to our enlarged client base.”