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Fund managers Abrdn is now to be known again as aberdeen, four years after a vowel-less rebranding from Standard Life Aberdeen.
The initial change in 2021 saw the group try to engage itself in a new digital age to “symbolise the free-flowing movement of money”, as it was put, but the name change was largely only notable for the mockery aimed at it.
Peter Branner, chief investment officer, last year claimed that the criticism the company received amounted to “corporate bullying” and suggested it wasn’t “ethical” to joke about – leading to further comments from Financial News that the business should “gt ovr it”.
With former CEO Stephen Bird now having departed and Jason Windsor in place since October 2023, aberdeen (now with a small “a”) is rebranding once more to “remove distractions” and mark a new phase for the organisation.
Along with the name-related issues the company suffered, of more importance was the outflow of funds they were managing, with £1.1bn removed by customers in 2024. But crucially, that rate is slowing, and the group reported profits of £255m last year, after attracting around 35,000 new customers to the interactive investor platform it owns.
The positive news from their trading update saw shares increase by upwards of 12 per cent in early trading on Tuesday, before falling back slightly to over 10.5 per cent by noon GMT.
Mr Windsor hopes that is the signal for a turnaround in the share price of the FTSE 250 company, which has been on a slow decline since 2021 and is 37 per cent down over the last five years. However, it is up 26 per cent in 2025, including Tuesday morning’s surge.
Assets under management and administration grew by 3.3 per cent to £511.4bn as of 31 December, with aberdeen declaring an unchanged full-year dividend.
Aberdeen also recently announced they were hiring Siobhan Boylan as CFO and executive director, due to arrive in the summer from Nat West’s private bank, Coutts.
On changing name – the fourth in eight years, following the original merger between Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management – Mr Windsor said: “This is a pragmatic decision marking a new phase for the organisation, as we focus on delivering for our customers, people and shareholders.”
