Abrdn saw fund outflows in the first half of the year but chief executive Stephen Bird described the company’s start to 2021 as “strong”, with revenues and profits up.
The net outflows were also lessening, particularly from a “low point” in 2018, the year after Aberdeen Asset Management and Standard Life merged, resulting in the name Standard Life Aberdeen, since changed to abrdn.
In its financial report for the first half of the year, abrdn said revenues contributed to the highest overall rates of growth since the merger.
Abrdn saw a 52% increase in adjusted operating profit, with each of the company’s “three growth vectors” delivering higher revenues.
The institutional and wholesale business saw the best net inflows since the merger. Excluding volatile “liquidity” funds, inflows were £800 million (€945.4 million). At the gross level, inflows were £20.2 billion – 21% higher than in H1 2020.
Abrdn’s adviser business saw net flows increase to £2 billion, up from £1.1 billion in the first six months of 2020, and the £500 million inflows into the company’s personal finance business segment were a record for the company.
Overall, in the first half of the year net outflows were reduced. Excluding liquidity funds, net outflows were £1.9 billion, representing a “significant improvement” over prior periods, which included £6.8 billion in the same period last year.
The figure was also less than 10% of the outflow figure at the low point, which was in the second half of 2018.
“We have made a strong start to the year and our three-year growth plan,” said Bird.
He added: “We have a clarity of focus under our new brand and are better positioned to have impact at scale as a global business. We are at the beginning of the journey and we are moving at pace to build our new future.”
Assets under management and administration were £532 billion, down slightly on the £535 billion at the end of 2020 due to flows and corporate actions detracting from positive market movements.
The company also reported “strong” demand for private markets investments, with net inflows at £3.2 billion, a ten-fold increase on the prior year.
On the same day as its results release, abrdn also announced the acquisition of Exo Investing from Nucoro, a fintech firm, for an undisclosed sum. Exo Investing uses artificial intelligence to help individual investors create portfolios.
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