Investment giant abrdn’s new chief executive has insisted the group has good growth prospects in spite of concerns about the outlook for key operations.
Jason Windsor was appointed chief executive of Edinburgh-based abrdn yesterday after holding the post on an interim basis since May.
He succeeded Stephen Bird, who left abruptly in May after leading a drive to transform abrdn into a broader-based provider of investment services.
The group focused on fund management after it was created through the £11bn merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management in 2017 but has faced challenges in that market.
Shares in the group have fallen sharply since it was formed.
Abrdn’s chairman Sir Douglas Flint said Mr Windsor had emerged from what was a very thorough process as the unanimous choice of the group board to lead abrdn in its next phase.
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The group considered a number of people for the role, including internal and external candidates.
Mr Windsor has acquired detailed knowledge of the savings and investments market which he could draw on as abrdn’s chief executive along with extensive mergers and acquisitions experience.
He spent more than a decade at Aviva and rose to become chief financial officer of the pensions giant. Before joining Aviva, Mr Windsor had a 15-year career in investment banking with Morgan Stanley.
The Oxford university graduate joined abrdn as chief financial officer in October after holding the same role at housebuilder Persimmon.
With such an impressive background, Mr Windsor likely had plenty of job opportunities. His decision to take on the top job at abrdn provides a vote of confidence in the firm, which employs more than 1,800 people in Scotland.
Mr Windsor said he saw significant headroom in each of abrdn’s three core businesses, with the potential to generate a step-change in performance for clients, customers and shareholders.
“My job now is to work with the talented team at abrdn to realise this opportunity and to build a more efficient, growing business,” he added.
In addition to managing funds, abrdn provides platforms that financial advisers can use to manage their client’s interests.
The group significantly expanded its customer base through the £1.5bn acquisition of the Interactive Investor business in December 2021. This provides technology used by retail investors to build and manage portfolios, which may include abrdn funds.
The deal was struck by Mr Bird five months after the group made the controversial decision to adopt the abrdn name, in place of Standard Life Aberdeen.
Abdrn said yesterday that Mr Bird’s departure in May followed the strategic repositioning of the company to a specialist asset manager, and a digitally-focused wealth manager.
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It came four months after Mr Bird launched a £150m transformation programme which abrdn has said is expected to result in the loss of 500 jobs. Layers of management will be removed.
In abrdn’s interm results announcement last month Mr Windsor said: “While market conditions remain challenging, we are firmly on track to realise at least £150m of annualised cost savings by the end of 2025.”
The cost cutting helped abrdn to make £187 million profit before tax in the six months to June 30, compared with a loss of £169m in the same period last time.
The group made an £88m gain on the sale of its European private equity business to Patria Investments in April.
However, abrdn’s fund management business suffered £1bn outflows of funds net of deposits in the first half.
The group told investors in August: “The market backdrop continues to present challenges for active management in Equities with only 33% of actively managed funds globally outperforming over the year to 30 June 2024.”
It added: “Our Equities performance continues to be impacted by this backdrop and our AUM (assets under management) bias towards Asia and Emerging Markets.”
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Following a long bull run, the outlook for global stock markets appeared to darken after weak US job numbers sparked a sell off early in August. Markets have recovered since then but investors appear to have lost some of their enthusiasm for shares in Nvidia and other members of the “magnificent seven” technology firms, which had supported increases in indices.
Mr Windsor will be paid a base salary of £800,000 and other benefits in line with the firm’s remuneration policy.
Mr Bird earned £2.1m total remuneration in the year to December 31.
Shares in abrdn closed down 0.2p at 147.3p.
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