The new chief executive of abrdn found himself facing a familiar battle to his predecessors as he unveiled its first trading update since taking charge of the investment firm on a permanent basis in September.

Shares in the Edinburgh firm plunged more than 10.5% as abrdn reported further net outflows from its Investments arm in the first nine months of the year, albeit to a lesser extent over the same period last year, and highlighted ongoing challenges at its Adviser business.

Clients pulled £4.5bn from its investment funds in the year to September 30, taking assets under management and administration (AUMA) at the division to £368.2 billion.

And net outflows of £3bn were reported for the year to date by the firm’s Adviser division, which provides products for independent financial advisors, taking AUMA to £75.1bn. abrdn said actions were “in train” to reverse the trend at Adviser, including further investment in technology, “strategic” repricing, proposition upgrades, and strengthening the leadership team.

However, total AUMA across abrdn edged up 2% to £506.7bn, helped by the growth of the firm’s interactive investor (ii) platform which continued to grow customer numbers and AUMA over the nine-month period. The ‘do-it-yourself’ investment business saw customer numbers increase by 6% to 430,000 in the year to date, with AUMA rising by 13% to £74.5bn.

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abrdn has struggled to stem outflows from its investment funds since coming into being with the £11bn merger of Aberdeen Asset Management and Standard Life in 2017. The deal triggered a shift away from Standard Life’s traditional strengths in life and pensions to a focus on active fund management.

New boss Jason Windsor was appointed permanent successor to Stephen Bird last month, having held the role on an interim basis since May, after an eventful four-year tenure under the Motherwell-born, former Citi executive. Mr Bird presided over a controversial name change to abrdn from Standard Life Aberdeen, and reshaped the business around three core businesses of Investments, Adviser, and ii. abrdn acquired Manchester-based ii for £1.5bn in December 2021 shortly after the change of name.

Mr Bird announced a major restructuring programme in January to save millions of pounds in costs and improve the performance of its investment business to an “acceptable level of profitability”. The restructuring is expected to lead to around 500 job cuts – equating to a 10% reduction of its workforce in Edinburgh  – as layers of management are taken out. The programme is expected to achieve annual cost savings of £150m per year by 2025.

abrdn said yesterday that it was on track to deliver around £60m of cost savings this year and at least £150m of annualised costs by the end of its 2025 financial year.

Mr Windsor, who joined abrdn as chief financial officer in October last year, after holding the same post with Persimmon and Aviva, said: “Today’s update shows strong performance in parts of our group; however, it also underlines the importance of delivering on the priorities I set out at the half year.

“I’m pleased with the continued growth in interactive investor; meanwhile, there are challenges to overcome in adviser, where we aim to return to being the platform of choice for clients. In investments, we need to do more to capitalise on our strengths and improve performance and flows, particularly in equities.

“We have strong, scale positions in attractive markets, and each of our businesses has headroom to grow. Our priorities remain to transform performance, improve the client experience, and strengthen our talent and culture.

“We have plans in place to address our challenges and our transformation programme is on track. While there remains much to do, I am confident that we have great talent and we can make further progress towards profitable and sustainable long-term growth, benefiting our shareholders, clients, and colleagues.”

Stockbroker Panmure Liberum said: “There is no doubting the challenge faced by the new CEO, but there should be a hope that he stands a better chance of rising to that challenge than his predecessor. In the short term the business continues to suffer from past mistakes, not least in Adviser where abrdn’s pain has already provided others’ gains. Estimates slip but the opportunity in the share price remains: there is more value in the business than the current share price discounts, but maybe now there is a management team which can do something about that.”

Shares in abrdn closed down 10.37%, or 17p, at 146.95p.