Aberdeen Asset Management Share Discussion Threads

[piedro] 23/10/2009 20:58

... shorters at work ...?

[brain smiley] 23/10/2009 16:33

Credit Suisse has upped its stake from 24% to 24.9%.

[brain smiley] 22/10/2009 16:29

sellers in complete control here. probadly heading lower.

[brain smiley] 19/10/2009 10:34

on the breakout area 138-140. thought this would rally with other fun managers.

[brain smiley] 15/10/2009 11:09

lagging a bit - MAN and all the other fund managers racing ahead.

COme on.

[lbo] 05/10/2009 22:27

Aberdeen Asset Mgmt upgraded to fair value from sell at Singer, target price rises to 135p from 110p.

[brain smiley] 10/9/2009 11:48

At last ! Breakout !

But where now ? 165-170 ? That's my bet.

[lbo] 15/8/2009 22:15

Goldman Sachs has a buy for Aberdeen Asset Management, raising the target to 165p from 154p



For much of 2008, London-based fund management group Toscafund was a bellwether for the hedge fund industry. It mistimed its bets on a market recovery, suffered outflows of funds and faced questions about its future.

In 2009, it has resumed that bellwether role – but this time as a representative of the sector's recovery. Its flagship hedge fund has returned more than 35 per cent so far this year, making it one of the industry's best performers

[simon gordon] 19/6/2009 19:44

FT:

Aberdeen chief saw deal with Credit Suisse as a downturn opportunity
By Kate Burgess

Published: June 12 2009

A year ago Santander, the Spanish bank, offered part of its asset management business with €130bn in funds under management, to Martin Gilbert, Aberdeen Asset Management's chief executive, writes Kate Burgess.

Mr Gilbert eschewed the offer and instead picked off Credit Suisse's lossmaking traditional long-only fund management business for about £250m in shares. The deal has since been described as a blueprint for BlackRock's mooted acquisition of Barclays Global Investors.

Aberdeen merged Credit Suisse's £50bn of assets with its own £90bn in funds, and also got the ability to distribute its products through Credit Suisse's private banking clients.

In return, Credit Suisse gained a 25 per cent stake and a seat on Aberdeen's board.

While the Swiss bank paid some of the cost of redundancies, it also gets a share of future profits as markets recover without the hassle of running an asset management business with all the associated headaches and costs.

Meanwhile, both Credit Suisse and Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan's largest financial group, own minority stakes in Aberdeen.

The company also has a distribution agreement with Mitsubishi.

Mr Gilbert, known by his peers as something of a deal junkie, says that the current downturn is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pick up businesses on the cheap and make a group big enough to survive whatever markets throw at it.

He is one of the possible buyers of the Delaware money management unit owned by Lincoln Financial in the US, which has about $120bn under management.

[lbo] 18/5/2009 14:28

Aberdeen enters talks over $115bn US manager

Aberdeen Asset Management is in talks to buy Delaware Investments from Lincoln Financial Group, according to sources familiar with the situation.

[lbo] 13/5/2009 23:13

Analysts felt that Aberdeen undershot expectations in today's trading update for the six months to the end of March, but the market cheered the numbers, sending Aberdeen's shares about 3 per cent higher.

This is possibly because the bad news at the UK's biggest independent fund manager is largely contained to fixed income.

While lost bond mandates and investment underperformance resulted in £9 billion of fund outflows from fixed income, Aberdeen remains convinced that it has stemmed the decline and the situation will improve in coming months.

Paul Griffiths, the new head of fixed income, who was inherited from the Credit Suisse Asset Management acquisition, brought unsettling new blood, but will by now have bedded down.

According to Martin Gilbert, the chief executive, Aberdeen has also sat on its investments in credit, so will benefit from a market recovery.

Equities and property both saw net fund inflows during the period.

Mr Gilbert is cautiously optimistic about market conditions. Although he expects turbulence to continue until at least the end of the year, he said the investment market for credit - one of Aberdeen's specialist areas - was clearly showing the green shoots.

He also plans to capitalise on the downturn. Having already hoovered up Credit Suisse's asset management arm in a £250 million deal late last year, Mr Gilbert today flagged interest in buying fund of hedge fund businesses, including in the US.

The optimistic will be predicting a swift return to assets under management of well above the £100 billion mark in the reasonably near-term, if not so much on performance, certainly with assets an acquisition might add.

With average fees of 47 basis points not far from double the previous period's 29 basis points, Aberdeen is also making a success of its margins.

Mr Gilbert says that the bottom-up investment house is very well-placed to sustain itself during, and eventually thrive as a result of the recession.

With the shares tightly held among strategic investors including Toscafund and Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ, he is probably right.

[piedro] 10/5/2009 12:24

Wednesday May 6, 07:06 AM
Wednesday tips round-up: Standard Chartered, Aberdeen Asset, NWF
...
....
Fund manager Aberdeen Asset may perform better as the financial markets' health improves, but there may be stumbles on the way, so keep clear until the numbers improve. Avoid says the Independent.


... LOL ... !!

[lbo] 07/5/2009 15:04

Aberdeen Asset Management initiated with buy rating at Goldman Sachs, price target 157p

[piedro] 05/5/2009 11:12

Interims appear positive at first glance.

[lbo] 30/1/2009 15:09

Fund manager Henderson Group has agreed to buy New Star Asset Management for £115m cash including debt. Henderson is today conducting a fully underwritten placing of up to 72.3m shares, 9.9% of the number currently in issue, to help fund the deal. The offer price is 2p in cash for each New Star share, which values equity of New Star post-completion of a proposed financial restructuring at about £21.6m. Following the acquisition, Henderson is expected to become the 5th largest UK retail fund manager with in excess of £15bn of funds under management.

[bones30] 05/1/2009 17:31

Sold at 132.5p

[its the oxman] 31/12/2008 12:03

sold out today 123p - good deal so will go higher in time but happy to switch out on this spike

[bones30] 19/12/2008 14:44

*cough, was doing very well...

Lots of decreasing %'s in the short disclosure RNSs. Must be quite a good omen.

[lbo] 19/12/2008 11:35

This is doing very well even as the general market is not! Must be some corporate activity on the way IMHO.

[tokolosh] 04/12/2008 11:51

From FT markets live today:



PM
reader beware
NH
some market RAW
NH
and this one is closer to home
NH
some interesting rumours swirling around Aberdeen Asset Management
NH
speculation of a transformational deal
NH
one that would be immediately earnings enhancing
NH
shares currently up 9.757p at 98.75p
PM
Whoa
PM
Martin Gilbert is certainly acquisitive
PM
so it can't be ruled out
PM
an idea what they might be looking at??
NH
not really
NH
but there are theories
NH
one rumour is that the deal involves assets under management worth £50bn
PM
(politiko -- usual place a bit later)
NH
and the deal would give Aberdeen a greater distribution platform in North America
NH
another rumour is that they could be interested in Credit Suisse's Global Investors business
NH
now this is up for sale
NH
but it is big
NH
really big
NH
manages SFr255bn ($212.6bn) in traditional long-only funds
NH
and as far as we know
NH
Credit Suisse is not set to sell the business any time soon
NH
and it is also not clear whether they have gone exclusive with anyone
NH
actually we did a story on this Credit Suisse business a while back
NH
here it is
NH
By Kate Burgess and Chris Hughes in London
Published: November 13 2008 18:07 | Last updated: November 13 2008 18:07
Credit Suisse is in talks over a possible joint venture for its traditional asset management business following the latest in a series of strategic reviews of the unit.
NH
The Swiss bank has concluded that one of the three sub-divisions of its asset management franchise, Global Investors, is sub-scale and that being part of a larger unit would better serve clients and create a more efficient operation.
Global Investors manages SFr255bn ($212.6bn) in traditional long-only funds. The review does not affect Credit Suisse's alternative investments or multi-asset class high-net worth unit.
NH
One person close to the bank said that Global Investors was at a critical juncture.
"It is now time to bulk up or get out," the person said.
Credit Suisse is looking for ways to boost profitability and improve the performance of the investment products sold to its private banking clients. One possible outcome would be a full sale of the asset management business, with Credit Suisse maintaining a distribution contract.
The bank is in discussions with at least one potential partner who could plug gaps in its range of funds and help the bank reduce its costs, although no decision has been made yet.
Credit Suisse declined to comment last night.
NH
anyway, I can well believe Abderdeen is up to something
NH
and the very latest talk is that the deal will be all stock
NH
although Aberdeen has a powerful backer
NH
Mitsubishi UFJ Trust, Japan's largest financial group
NH
they took a 10% holding a while back and
NH
increased that holding to 11% yesterday
NH
through its relationship with MUFJ, Abderdeen is hoping to crack the market there
PM
Hmm -- thanks for all that

[lbo] 04/12/2008 11:25

Aberdeen rises


Aberdeen Asset Management showed that it had outperformed a struggling fund management sector by reporting slightly higher profits before exceptionals of £95.1m, up from £94.3m last year, writes Kiran Stacey .

The company said in its full-year results that it had managed to increase its funds under management 17 per cent to £111.1bn, largely through making acquisitions.

But its share price slipped slightly by 2.2 per cent to 88p as profits came in £800,000 below consensus expectations.

"Some of those forecasts were made a long time ago, and don't reflect the current market position," said Martin Gilbert, Aberdeen's chief executive.

Mr Gilbert said he was very pleased at the results, but added the company would look to make £20m worth of savings. These will be achieved partly by relocating from Dublin to Luxembourg. "Next year will be tougher in terms of revenues," he said. "All we can do to mitigate that is try and become more efficient."

The company managed to boost its funds under management through acquiring other businesses in spite of net inflows of only £1bn, down from £8.7bn after £20.8bn was withdrawn during the year.

This led to a 155 per cent rise in profits before exceptionals, but only a marginal move after such items were removed. The company said legal costs had suppressed the pre-exceptional profit figure for 2007.

Earnings per share rose 29 per cent to 4.52p, while the full-year dividend is increased from 5.5p to 5.8p.

[lbo] 02/12/2008 10:58

Price: 88.00p | P/E: 9.3 | Div Yield: 6.6%

Aberdeen Asset Management's increase in both profits and funds under management during the most turbulent period for investment markets in living memory is some achievement.

Martin Gilbert's Edinburgh-based fund manager insulated itself against the worst of the storm by heading for new markets in continental Europe and Asia Pacific while concentrating on institutions, rather than retail investors, as clients. As a result, it improved revenues by a quarter to £430.1 million in the year to the end of September, while pretax profits edged up to £95.1 million and assets grew by £15.8 billion to £111.1 billion.

True, the acquisitions of Goodman Property Investors and Germany's DEGI accounted for £12.8 billion of the additional funds, but Aberdeen still enjoyed net inflows while other managers saw institutions withdraw money in their droves. The shares have held up well this year, but suffered yesterday from fallout from New Star Asset Management, which has gone into talks over its debt.

Aberdeen is a potential suitor of New Star, but for now it is taking the only action possible. Having already sought annual operating cost savings of £57 million, it plans to chase a further £20 million of cuts. Most will come from data management and IT efficiencies, and job losses will be few. The presence of Mitsubishi, of Japan, as a 10 per cent investor, with the option to go to 19.9 per cent, increases stability. Hold until markets stabilise.

[bmw30csl] 14/11/2008 09:29

this is strange - something going on