Aberdeen Group

Aberdeen Group plc, trading as aberdeen, is a United Kingdom-based investment company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The registered office of the company is at George Street, Edinburgh.[4]

The company changed its trading identity from abrdn to aberdeen on 4 March 2025, and its name from abrdn plc to Aberdeen Group plc on 13 March 2025.[5]

History

In March 2017, Standard Life reached an agreement to merge with Aberdeen Asset Management, in an all-share merger, subject to shareholder approval.[6] The merged company was named Standard Life Aberdeen.[7]

In May 2017, Standard Life acquired the loss-making AXA Portfolio Services for £31 million. This company housed AXA Elevate, the investment platform from Axa. At the time of acquisition the platform held £9.8 billion of client assets, boosting the total level of assets held on Standard Life platforms to £36.4 billion.[8]

In October 2017, it was reported that there had been withdrawals of $10 billion from Standard Life Aberdeen's mutual funds over the prior year.[9]

In February 2018, Standard Life Aberdeen initiated the sale of the Standard Life insurance business to Phoenix Group for £3.2 billion, marking a transition away from its insurance roots to asset management.[10] In April 2018, Aberdeen Standard Investments announced the acquisition of ETF Securities' US exchange-traded funds ('ETF') business in an effort to build a presence in the US ETF market.[11]

Sir Gerry Grimstone stepped down as chairman on 1 January 2019 and was succeeded by Sir Douglas Flint.[12]

Keith Skeoch stood down as chief executive and was succeeded by Stephen Bird in September 2020.[13]

In September 2020 it initiated the acquisition of a 60% interest in Tritax, one of Europe's leading logistics real estate fund managers.[14]

In April 2021, having sold the Standard Life Insurance business to Phoenix Group in 2018 and having sold the Standard Life name to Phoenix Group in 2021,[15] the company rebranded as abrdn.[16] The new brand, pronounced "Aberdeen" and developed by the branding agency Wolff Olins, was criticised as difficult to pronounce.[17] The change of name and the rebranding took place in July 2021.[18] The name was received with widespread criticism and was the subject of online jokes. An online poll of investors described the rebrand as an "act of corporate insanity".[19][20][21]

In July 2021, the company sold Parmenion, an investment and technology solutions business that supports financial advice firms, to Preservation Capital Partners.[22]

In May 2022, Abrdn acquired Interactive Investor, a British subscription-based retail investment services company with over 400,000 customers for £1.49 billion.[23]

In June 2023, the company restructured its financial planning arm, splitting into two models – the 'financial consultant' model and the 'regional advice' model.[24]

In January 2024, it was widely reported that Abrdn were to cut around 10% of its workforce of 5,000 people as part of a £150M restructuring plan.[25] On 24 January 2024, the plans to cut around 500 jobs were confirmed.[26]

In April 2024, Abrdn completed the sale of its European-headquartered private equity business (with £7.4bn assets under management) to Nasdaq-listed Patria Investments for up to £100m. The sale followed the sale of its US-headquartered private equity business to High Vista Strategies in 2023.[27]

In May 2024, Stephen Bird stood down as CEO and Jason Windsor, the then CFO, was appointed as interim group CEO,[28] and formally appointed to the role in September of that year.[29]

On 4 March 2025, the company changed its trading identity to "aberdeen", after its 2021 rebrand to "abrdn" faced widespread criticism. The company also initiated a search for a new chair as Douglas Flint prepared to step down.[30] On 13 March 2025, the company changed its name to "Aberdeen Group plc".[5]

In December 2025, it was announced that Aberdeen Investments would assume management of nine closed-ended funds worth approximately £1.5 billion from US-based MFS Investment Management. The transaction involves merging the MFS funds and one existing Aberdeen fund into two larger closed-ended funds focused on municipal bonds and multi-sector fixed income assets, subject to shareholder approval.[31]

See also

• List of managers of Standard Life Aberdeen

External links