Standard Life Plc, Scotland's largest insurer, is in talks to acquire Aberdeen Asset Management Plc, creating one of Europe's biggest fund managers overseeing £660 billion (€765 billion).
Under the terms of the potential deal, Standard Life shareholders would own 66.7 per cent of the combined group, according to a joint statement on Saturday. Aberdeen’s investors would receive 0.757 new Standard Life ordinary share for each share they already own. That values Aberdeen in line with Friday’s market value of £3.77 billion.
Active managers have been working to halt a tide of investors shifting money to low-cost, passive funds and have been cutting costs to protect profitability. Aberdeen, hurt by weaker sentiment toward emerging markets, has had more than three years of redemptions, leading chief executive Martin Gilbert to reduce expenses and freeze salaries.
Struggling
“Aberdeen has been struggling of late,” said Laith Khalaf, a senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Plc. “They have seen a huge number of outflows for a significant period of time, so probably a combination with Standard Life will steady that ship somewhat.”
Standard Life is known for its multi-asset strategies, including its flagship GARS fund which manages about £25.1 billion, while Aberdeen is seen as an emerging-market specialist, with about a quarter of its assets invested in the region. Both companies have suffered outflows from those strategies.
Both Gilbert and Standard Life chief executive Keith Skeoch have said they wanted to grow in the United States, where most of the world’s assets are managed, as part of efforts to become more global.
Standard Life Investments, which has a partnership with John Hancock, currently sells nine products to US investors and oversees about £12.5 billion of assets there.
The potential combination between the two Scottish firms could achieve annual cost savings of £200 million, Sky News reported, without saying where it had got the figure.
Standard Life, based in Edinburgh, employs about 8,335 people and the Aberdeen, Scotland-based asset manager has more than 2,800 workers.
Co-chiefs
Talks are ongoing and “the potential merger represents an excellent opportunity to leverage Standard Life and Aberdeen’s combined strengths,” according to the firms. The combined company would have a market value of about £11 billion and see Skeoch and Gilbert become co-chief executives and Standard Life’s Gerry Grimstone would become chairman.
A deal would boost revenue, cash flow and earnings that will deliver “attractive and sustainable returns for shareholders, including dividends,” according to the statement.
Both Aberdeen and Standard Life’s investment unit reported outflows in 2016 after investors pulled money in the aftermath of Britain’s shock decision to leave the European Union and Donald Trump’s presidential election victory. Aberdeen’s shares have risen 11.3 per cent this year and Standard Life is up 1.8 per cent.
Gilbert said in May he had resisted buyer interest, saying “being independent is a massive benefit”. The chief executive has previously said he wanted to do a deal similar to Henderson Group’s cross-border merger with Janus Capital Group.
The firm weighed a bid for Pioneer Global Asset Management and dropped it after saying the price was too high.
Based on Standard Life’s closing share price Friday of 378.50p, the deal would offer Aberdeen shareholders about 286.52p apiece, for a total value of about £3.78 billion based on Aberdeen’s 1.32 billion shares outstanding. Standard Life declined to comment on the valuation. The insurer, which has sold off insurance assets to focus on asset management, has a market value of £7.5 billion.
Goldman Sachs is advising Standard Life, while Credit Suisse and JPMorgan Chase are advising Aberdeen. Sky News first reported the talks. – (Bloomberg)
