The proposed £11 billion (€12.7 billion) merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management is to be investigated by the UK’s competition regulator.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said its preliminary stage investigation would examine whether the merger of the two Scottish investment houses – which would create Europe’s second largest fund manager with assets of around £660 billion – would reduce competition within the industry.
A decision on whether to launch a full-scale investigation will be taken by 18 July following a consultation period for which the deadline for comments has been set for June 6.
The two companies announced the merger in March in a deal that is expected to lead to a 10% reduction in the current combined workforce of both companies of 9,000.
Shareholder meetings, for investors to approve the deal, have been scheduled for June with the companies expected to finalise the merger in August.
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