Posted By Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on January 21, 2025
By Iain Withers
LONDON (Reuters) - Abrdn said on Tuesday clients invested more cash with the British asset manager than they withdrew in the last few months of 2024, sending its shares up 6%, while its CEO said the company's widely-mocked truncated name would stay for now.
Abrdn still reported net outflows for the year, highlighting the pressure on mid-sized active money managers due to competition from cheaper index-tracking products.
Its shares remain down about 40% over three years.
CEO Jason Windsor, the company's former finance chief, took the helm last year and has begun cutting costs and shedding underperforming businesses.
Windsor said he would give a strategy update alongside full-year results on March 4.
Asked about possibly heightened volatility in markets after Donald Trump began a second term as U.S. president on Monday, Windsor said abrdn would look to invest long term.
"Domestically there's frankly a degree of euphoria in the U.S. about the opportunity for growth, deregulation, lower taxation and investment in business ... What does it mean in terms of the more international dimensions? I don't think we know," he said.
Britain needs to do more to attract investment, including streamlining planning on property developments and reviewing stamp duty on stock trading, Windsor added.
Abrdn said it attracted 1.2 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) of net inflows from clients in the fourth quarter, versus 5.7 billion of outflows in the same period the prior year.
JPMorgan analysts said the net inflows beat their expectations, driven by improving flows into cash funds and its retail platform interactive investor.
Outflows for the year were 1.1 billion pounds, down from 17.6 billion in 2023. Assets under management increased to 511.4 billion pounds from 506.7 billion at end-September.
Windsor played down the prospect of changing abrdn's name after inheriting the brand, which was mocked online after being rebranded from Standard Life Aberdeen in 2021, from his predecessor Stephen Bird.
"I've got nothing to say on the name. The name is the name, and we are continuing with it," Windsor told reporters.
($1 = 0.8153 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain Withers. Editing by Sinead Cruise and Mark Potter)
