Scotland’s bid for glory
AS A matter of course, partners in nil premium mergers such as that of Standard Life and Aberdeen seek to sell the deal to investors by promising cost cutting.
This was one of the big justifications for the London Stock Exchange-Deutsche Boerse deal, and is playing heavily in the Peugeot-Vauxhall narrative.
Cost cutting is not a victimless crime. Normally it is shorthand for people losing their jobs when central functions such as IT platforms and distribution systems are brought together. Standard Life and Aberdeen were predictably shy about this as their bosses toured Scotland seeking to put the brightest gloss on a deal which could cost hundreds of jobs over time.
The shyness is understandable. At first blush this ought to be a great deal for Scotland, struggling to prosper during an oil glut which makes the North Sea uncompetitive.
The idea of a new Scottish £660bn financial powerhouse to erase bad memories of Royal Bank of Scotland and the Bank of Scotland (now buried deep within Lloyds) should be as welcome as a Burns Night feast. That is until one considers that most of the cost savings are likely to be north of the border. Moreover, Standard Life was among those institutions which had planned to move to London should Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish nationalists get their wish of independence.
If Standard Life, Aberdeen and the advisers really wanted to demonstrate their commitment to cut costs, they should have started at the top. Martin Gilbert of Aberdeen and Keith Skeoch are both in their own right fine leaders who have done wonders for their companies. But no firm requires two chief executives, even if they do enjoy fishing holidays together.
As ridiculous is the doubling up at the very top, with Sir Gerry Grimstone of Standard Life taking the chairman’s seat and Aberdeen’s Simon Troughton the deputy chairman slot. Aside from the fact this all looks like jobs for the boys, such arrangements, in the past, have been more disruptive than taking hard decisions at the onset.
Few City veterans will forget the ill-fated merger of Royal Insurance and Sun Alliance two decades ago when the partners ended up fighting like rats in a sack while the merger proved a huge disappointment.
It may be that both companies felt they had little choice. Aberdeen has been pummelled by the emerging markets slowdown and suffered 15 consecutive quarters of outflows. Standard Life has turned itself into a fund management champion but, like its proposed partner, is suffering from the current trend away from active management to far cheaper passive funds.
There is still a possibility an outsider could crash the party, but it seems unlikely given that Aberdeen’s strategic shareholders Mitsubishi, with 17pc, and Lloyds, with nearly 10pc, apparently favour the deal. It may be a case of two whisky-soaked Scottish drunks holding each other up in stressful times, but it is far better than letting them fall into a ditch or, even worse, overseas hands, as the positive share price reaction would suggest. Cash call DEUTSCHE Bank shares predictably plummeted 8pc after British chief executive John Cryan reversed course and plumped for a £7bn rights issue. That may make Germany’s largest bank safer after last year’s scare about survival, but the task of rebuilding its investment bank business, in competition with the Wall Street giants, Barclays and others, will be considerable. Cryan has decided to hedge his bets by retaining an interest in retail banking through Postbank.
The German lender has raised £17.2bn in new capital since the euro crisis in 2010 yet its market value is just £22.4bn.
At least it stands on its own feet, unlike the UK’s most sickly child RBS. The wire ONE tends to regard Western Union as a downmarket money transfer service, often to be found in the least-smart neighbourhoods. Not any longer.
As banks have been forced by money laundering and terrorism regulations and fines to close down accounts in the Middle East and other developing regions, Western Union has come into its own.
Remittances from foreign nations to families back home stand at more than $500bn a year and far outstrip overseas development assistance at close to $135bn.
The new order has been a huge revival opportunity for Western Union, which is rolling out 31 currency outlets and transfer services in John Lewis stores across the country. How upwardly mobile.