Aberdeen Asset Management Share Discussion Threads

[bmw30csl] 20/8/2008 00:39

wouldnt like to own this at the moment as its a leveraged play on the markets - dont think they are good enough to earn performance fees in these crazy markets

[piedro] 11/8/2008 16:50

August 10, 2008
Will games make China shares jump higher?
..................................
Hugh Young, managing director of Aberdeen Asset Management Asia, said: "Having been concerned about a bubble in the Chinese market and unexcited about valuations for several years, our appetite is starting to be whetted after the recent sharp falls.
"However, we continue to prefer to gain exposure through those Chinese companies listed in Hong Kong, where standards of accounting and transparency are better than those of their mainland counterparts. Our investments in aggregate have strong balance sheets and responsible management teams."

[hectorp] 01/8/2008 16:01

WHOLE PAGE buy article in todays Investors Chron.
My own tagret however is quite close to today's price having bough cheaply,
and US markets could turn down any day again, which would not help ADN.
-Buy on more weakness seems sensible.

[hectorp] 01/8/2008 16:01

WHOLE PAGE buy article in todays Investors Chron.
My own tagret however is quite close to today's price having bough cheaply,
and US markets could turn down any day again, which would not help ADN.
-Buy on more weakness seems sensible.

[hectorp] 20/7/2008 13:46

IF hedgies were running a short on ADN last week, they got well burned - hurray!
No doubt half of the rally was shorts closing, but as the US and Far East closed strong on Friday they may have more shorts to close yet.

[crosswire] 20/7/2008 10:12

Aberdeen chief backs ailing UK banks

Miles Costello

Aberdeen Asset Management, one of the City's most powerful institutional investors, publicly backed the rebuilding of Britain's tattered banking sector today but gave warning that executives need to learn the lessons of what has been "a very serious crisis".

Martin Gilbert, the chief executive of the £114 billion fund manager, told Times Online that Aberdeen had decided to support Royal Bank of Scotland's crunch rights issue.

He indicated that Aberdeen would also be supporting future rights issues from UK banks, but not at any cost.

"We took a view with Royal Bank of Scotland. We supported the rights issue," Mr Gilbert said. "I think it's a sensible course to recapitalise the banks - as long as the lessons are learnt from what has been a very serious crisis."

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His comments underscore the role the City's leading asset managers are being asked to play in the reshaping of corporate Britain. It is also rare for fund managers to go public about their willingness to support companies.

The £12 billion cash call by the bank represented the first in a wave of fundraisings as banks including HBOS, Barclays and Bradford & Bingley move to repair their balance sheets in the wake of the credit crunch.

They come as B&B, the buy-to-let mortgage lender that has struggled to raise £400 million, relies on the support of its four leading shareholders to ensure the success of its forthcoming rights issue.

Standard Life, Legal & General, Prudential and Insight have agreed to buy about £150 million of the issue.

Guy Jubb, Standard Life's head of corporate governance, told B&B's management yesterday that shareholders expected that their rights would be properly respected by the bank in future.

HBOS's £4 billion rights issue needs the support of its underwriters at Morgan Stanley and Dresdner Kleinwort to guarantee completion, while Barclays has turned to sovereign wealth funds to guarantee its £4.5 billion placing and open offer.

Mr Gilbert was speaking as Aberdeen cheered investors with a £6.4 billion increase in funds under management during the three months to the end of June. The 6 per cent rise takes total assets under management at Aberdeen to £113.6 billion.

Aberdeen increased its cost-cutting target from £15 million to £57 million. Savings from within the fund management and property divisions will cost £12 million to implement but save £40 million a year.

Shares rose more than 8 per cent, up 9.75p at 131.25p, despite market turbulence, performance and exchange rate movements wiping almost £1.8 billion from the value of Aberdeen's assets.

Mr Gilbert said he was "pretty pleased" with performance. He said job cuts would be minimal, at a maximum of about 30 people out of a staff of 1,800. He said Aberdeen had been insulated in part by its famed bottom-up investment approach.

Mr Gilbert called on the Financial Services Authority, the City's chief regulator, to firm up its disclosure rules on short-selling.

Investors such as hedge funds should have to disclose their bets that company shares will fall, irrespective of whether they are in a rights issue period, he said.

"I don't mind them shorting. I just don't see why they shouldn't have to disclose it," he said.



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Hectorp hope to get to at least 150p....

[hectorp] 19/7/2008 15:41

Indeed the company has taken heart from it crosswire, and what a good timing, to introduce stated sum cuts just as the markets started a bit of recovery.
Well, if the Analysts are correct, if this mitigates the effect of the downturn,
I can see a share price of 210 p back there, I had thought we could see 160p in a few months, but it may be next week.
I am cursing that I only bought a few K on Thursday.

[crosswire] 19/7/2008 07:11

Aberdeen unveils plan to weather turmoil

By Andrea Felsted and Kate Burgess

Published: July 18 2008 20:12 | Last updated: July 18 2008 20:12

Aberdeen Asset Management, which in the space of three years has turned itself into one of the UK's biggest fund managers, has embarked on a severe cost-cutting programme to weather further market turbulence.

Martin Gilbert, chief executive, identified more than £57m in cost savings and said the net effect on the group's pre-tax profits would be £35m in 2009, rising to about £40m a year after that.


Aberdeen assets rise 6% amid market turmoil - Jul-18Aberdeen Asset Management buys back ex-property arm - May-06Dawnay Day sell-offs raise questions over rest of portfolio - Jul-11Tosca hits at talk of trouble - Jun-11Aberdeen underlines strength of change - May-03Toscafund now leading Aberdeen investor - Apr-15Mr Gilbert said: "This is not a big redundancy programme. It is not cutting into the fabric of our business but £40m is still a big figure for a business of our size." He explained it as good housekeeping: "These markets give us the opportunity to focus on our cost base and run the business more efficiently. The worst of the credit crunch may be over but there will be further blips."

Mr Gilbert suggested that among the worst hit will be the heavily indebted property funds forced to sell properties in falling markets, warning that "short-term debt is not a good thing to have when banks are degearing". His comments underline the challenging conditions facing asset managers, particularly those that have taken on debt in the past few years, as they brace themselves for continued wild swings in equity markets and falling confidence.

Several analysts speculate the combination of high debt and falling revenues will force a wave of consolidation among some asset managers.

Aberdeen has little debt and has been careful not to expand too fast. It has taken relatively unusual steps to control the fast growth of its emerging market business by closing funds to new institutional clients.

That follows similar steps to slow down the growth of its Asian and fixed-income business. Analysts said the flows reported yesterday by the group were better than expected.

Assets under management rose 6 per cent in the three months to June 30, in spite of turmoil in financial markets, to201;stand at £113.7bn. This included £7.3bn of property assets from the acquisition of Goodman Property Investors in May. Excluding Goodman, Aberdeen had net inflows of £877m, compared with £474m in the first six months of its financial year. This was offset by asset falls of £1.7bn caused by foreign exchange losses and market movements.

Redemptions continued apace, at a level about 50 per cent higher than a year earlier, as investors scaled back their appetite for risk.

Assets withdrawn by clients in the three months to June 30 totalled £4.7bn, compared with £3.1bn in the year-earlier period. Redemptions in the nine months to June 30 were £15.1bn (£10.1bn).

[crosswire] 19/7/2008 07:04

Aberdeen Rises in London After It Boosts Assets by 6% (Update1)

By Nandini Sukumar

July 18 (Bloomberg) -- Aberdeen Asset Management Plc, Scotland's largest independent money manager, rose 17 percent in London trading, the most in 5 1/2 years, after it said assets under management rose in the fiscal third quarter.

Assets rose 6 percent to 113.7 billion pounds ($227 billion) as of June 30 from 107.3 billion pounds on March 31, the Aberdeen, Scotland-based company said today in a statement. The company said it will make 57 million pounds of cost cuts.

``We've been through the worst of the credit crisis though there will still be some shocks along the way,'' Chief Executive Officer Martin Gilbert told journalists on a conference call today. ``Institutional investor confidence is still O.K., but the retail investor'' is ``still fragile,'' he said.

Aberdeen and other asset managers have been buffeted by volatile markets amid the subprime-mortgage crisis. Still, some companies are reporting stronger earnings, Gilbert said, citing BlackRock Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., both of which reported earnings yesterday that topped analyst estimates.

Aberdeen rose 20.75 pence to 142.25 pence today, the most since Nov. 6, 2002. The shares are down 14 percent this year, valuing the company at 1 billion pounds.

[hectorp] 18/7/2008 18:42

Possibly the greatest one day rise in two years was experienced by ADN today.
its the combination of £57.M of 'savings' plus increased business.
And to think I sold at 112 looking for a fall into the 99's
Managed to buy back yesterday at 120-21's.
So maybe my new 2008 target of 160p will be met in a week. What a market.
( Note the 17% rise is more in keeping with some trendy small cap.!)

[hectorp] 18/7/2008 13:10

Investors have taken strongly to today's news. Of course we are in a bear market, so this is a respite , welcome, which will require judicious watching!

[crosswire] 18/7/2008 10:06

Aberdeen increases assets under management by 6 per cent

Story by: Gemma Westacott
Magazine: FTAdviser
Published Friday , July 18, 2008

Aberdeen Asset Management increased assets under management to £113.7bn in the second quarter of 2008, up 6 per cent from £107.3bn at the end of March.


At the same time, Aberdeen revealed today (18 July) that it has identified £57m pounds of annualised cost savings, as part of a strategy to increase the efficiency of the business - £27m of which are in the fund management division and £30m in the property division.

However, Aberdeen also revealed that gross new business has reduced to £5.6bn in the second quarter of 2008, compared to £6.4bn for the same quarter last year.

Aberdeen attributed this to continued volatility in the equity, bond and property markets , which it said was likely to continue "in the near future".

Aberdeen chief executive Martin Gilbert said: "Whilst market conditions may continue to be volatile, our global presence, breadth of products, quality of people and strong balance sheet all ensure we are well positioned to continue to make progress."

[hectorp] 18/7/2008 09:53

-ADN starting to weather this downturn, with some strength.
Note that the finding of £57M in savings on overheads admin etc, will be ongoing and repeating: Also, at half the market cap of last year, these monies represent a very high percentage of 'income' to the bottom line at next results and succeeding ones.
We should be back at 160p soon enough.

[piedro] 18/7/2008 08:22

RNS Number : 3683Z
18 July 2008
INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT - 3 MONTHS TO 30 JUNE 2008
Highlights
Increase in assets under management to £113.7bn
£5.6bn of new business won during the quarter
Acquisition of Goodman Property Investors completed
£57m of annualised cost savings identified

Martin Gilbert, Chief Executive of Aberdeen, commented:
'Despite these challenging market conditions, we continue to win new business across the Group's core asset classes and increase assets under management. At the same time, we are focusing on increasing our efficiency as a business and have identified £57m of annualised cost savings.
'Whilst market conditions may continue to be volatile, our global presence, breadth of products, quality of people and strong balance sheet all ensure we are well positioned to continue to make progress.'

The equity, bond and property markets in which Aberdeen operates have continued to be volatile and are likely to remain so in the near future. Despite this unhelpful background, the Group has continued to attract healthy levels of new business, albeit redemptions have also continued at higher levels than experienced in more settled market conditions. Taking into account the assets added by the acquisition of Goodman Property Investors which was completed in the quarter, assets under management ('AUM') grew to £113.7 billion at 30 June 2008 (£107.3 billion at 31 March 2008)....

[hectorp] 18/7/2008 08:06

Most interesting 'find'!

[hectorp] 17/7/2008 11:12

Need to see 2 clear up days above 115 before I'll come back.

[hectorp] 16/7/2008 11:15

ADN sadly has lost that 7 day support and accordingly I let my position stop out.
Seek new position on any rally above 115p in a couple of days, or look at low 100's. Cash preservation very important.

[hectorp] 15/7/2008 14:08

The darkest days are before the Dawn ( Churchill?)
Notice gents and fellow travellers that for 7 days we have a chart triple bottom at 115.25.
I'd really love that to hold this week.

[hectorp] 14/7/2008 08:09

Alredy supplanted by a restructuring RNS today.. see DDC thread for example.

[lbo] 13/7/2008 22:17

Not good for Aberdeens Dawney Day Treveria holding!

Dawnay Day calls in Ernst & Young for restructuring

[hectorp] 12/7/2008 19:33

Very interesting. In this climate , bring on that offer please!

[czar] 12/7/2008 17:52

Talk of a 200p-a-share bid approach boosts Aberdeen Asset Management

[focus1800] 09/7/2008 10:52

Well, some see it as, we are entering a recession and they may be right if the domino effect takes hold.In time stellar returns will happen,its judging the best entry point.