Standard Life Aberdeen Share Discussion Threads

[spud] 20/5/2021 11:42

Standard Life Aberdeen unveils top team hire ahead of shift to Abrdn



Standard Life Aberdeen, the investment giant transitioning to the new brand name Abrdn, has bolstered its executive leadership team after poaching the boss of wealth manager Brooks Macdonald.

Caroline Connellan takes up the post of chief executive of personal wealth, reporting directly to group chief executive Stephen Bird. She will be based in London.

Connellan will join Edinburgh-headquartered SLA from Brooks Macdonald Group where she is CEO, having led that business since early 2017.

She is said to have overseen strong year-on-year growth in funds under management, revenue and profit as well as undertaking key acquisitions and “driving significant transformation to support the success of the business”.

Prior to this, Connellan held key senior roles at HSBC, including head of UK premier and wealth, and has extensive consulting experience across the asset management and wealth sector with McKinsey. Her earlier career included roles with Standard Life, which merged with Aberdeen Asset Management to create SLA, and as a private client fund manager with Newton Investment Management.

SLA’s personal wealth business includes 1825 Financial Planning and the group’s direct-to-customer propositions including Digital Retirement Advice.

The group said it was looking to “significantly” grow the personal wealth arm under its recently announced, though widely mocked, unifying single brand Abrdn.

Bird said: “[Caroline] is an outstanding talent with clear and proven ability in building exceptional wealth management businesses, both organically and via acquisition. Critically, she has a deep customer-centric mindset and extensive experience in creating compelling and innovative offerings.

“Earlier this year, we outlined our strategy for growth encompassing three vectors; asset management, adviser and personal.

“Alongside significant investment in asset management and our adviser support business, our intention is to build a market-leading wealth management proposition to capture value in the growing savings and pre-retirement market.

“The appointment of Caroline to lead our personal wealth business will be instrumental in delivering our objectives and I’m extremely pleased that she has shown strong confidence in our strategy and brand by joining us.”

Connellan added: “It’s an exciting time to be joining SLA given its ambitions and commitment to the growing wealth market. Stephen’s vision for the business is dynamic and bold, and I’m delighted to have the opportunity to lead and shape the personal wealth business, building on its current quality offering.

“There is an increasing need for individuals to save for the future, particularly for retirement, in a way that works for them – I believe we can play an important role in this.

“I’m hugely looking forward to joining the leadership team at SLA and playing my part in leading the change over the coming years.”

Last month, SLA announced that it was to change its name to Abrdn, creating a “modern, agile, digitally-enabled brand”.

The group had already said that it planned to create new branding after the funds firm sealed a deal to sell the 196-year-old Standard Life brand to Phoenix Group.

The rebranding roll-out process for the new name and associated visual identity will begin in the summer and progress through 2021.

spud

[mcunliffe1] 19/5/2021 15:41

Appreciate the fast response C.I.
Wish commercial companies reacted so quickly.

[chinese investor] 19/5/2021 14:40

Thanks for the info !

[mcunliffe1] 19/5/2021 14:38

13p to 250p !

By the way C.I. there are 2.18bn shares now in play according to the AGM disclosure.

I do see the sector is affected as L&G are down as well. However, SLA (Abrdn) still trailing L&G when, a few weeks ago the respective share prices had SLA leading.

[chinese investor] 14/5/2021 09:06

49p to 315p !

[chinese investor] 14/5/2021 09:05

I topped up at 257p yesterday morning.
5.68% yield.

[gaygay3] 12/5/2021 17:52

this share is very slow need some good news from SL hoping SB can earn his corn on a bit of a downer at the mo only time will tell if I made the right decision to invest

[mcunliffe1] 12/5/2021 17:51

Chinese I. whilst the yield may be 5.5% you'll not see a real monetary yield until the next interim divi. in Sept. '21.

Until then the share price may fall quite a bit possibly wiping out any yield if you stick with the holding.

I've little confidence in SLA (Abrdn) at the moment.

[fenners66] 12/5/2021 17:39

Just looked back at the share price , its fallen a long way since I sold , so that makes me feel better.....

Can it fall further and push that yield higher though?

[chinese investor] 12/5/2021 17:08

I will top up tomorrow.
Yield is 5.5% !

[pander45] 11/5/2021 09:16

It's hunting for 250....

[pander45] 10/5/2021 22:37

I'll dip a toe in at 250 ish

[netcurtains] 07/5/2021 13:53

I bought a fee.
Only a small punt.
I do like the low PE ratio.

[mcunliffe1] 07/5/2021 12:25

Today is an historic day.

My wife's L&G shares are now worth more than my SLA shares.
£2.85 L&G, £2.79 SLA and even though she holds a smaller number than I her overall value is greater.

Well done SLA.

Let's see if gaygay3's hopes are accurate by this time next year. And let's see how L&G are performing at that same time just in case any rise is market reasons based rather than Bird earning his corn.

[gaygay3] 06/5/2021 15:11

I have just invested in standard life because I think Stephen bird can turn this around hopefully this will be about £3.50 to £4 this time next year at the moment it’s slow hope the half year update will turn the share price any thoughts on Stephen bird as he invested I think at 296p

[gaygay3] 06/5/2021 15:11

I have just invested in standard life because I think Stephen bird can turn this around hopefully this will be about £3.50 to £4 this time next year at the moment it’s slow hope the half year update will turn the share price any thoughts on Stephen bird as he invested I think at 296p

[mcunliffe1] 06/5/2021 08:32

Pander45, DRIFT is a good choice of word.

There seems to have been no management direction for SLA (or Abrdn) for some years now. They are devoid of ideas. It was evident with the buy-back. An investment company buying back its own shares is laughable. Any supposed bolstering of the share price as a result of that action is clearly short-lived.

Then, after cutting the divi they announce a name change with all the attendant (but as yet undisclosed) costs.

I suspect their inventiveness will be solely directed towards director bonuses and how those may be protected with a falling share price and a decline in AUM.

[pander45] 05/5/2021 21:59

This could drift to 250

[spud] 05/5/2021 11:56

For those interested, I have created a new dedicated Crytocurrency thread where all things Crypto can be discussed:



spud

[ianguerin] 30/4/2021 06:01

You are doing muppets a dis-service there !