‘I won’t retire,’ says new chief of Standard Life

THE boss of a giant new pensions firm has insisted he will be going nowhere as the days of early retirement are done.

As joint chief executive of Standard Life Aberdeen, Martin Gilbert is responsible for managing £660bn of savers’ money – much of it being stored up for pension nest eggs. But the 62year-old has insisted that he and co-head Keith Skeoch, 60, intend to stay put for a decade more.

He said: ‘The days of going at 60 or 65 are over.’ Bankers, lawyers and spin doctors toasted a £97m payday as a mega-merger between Gilbert’s Aberdeen Asset Management and Skeoch’s Standard Life sailed through. Those in line for the cash include Mark Sorrell, the son of advertising guru Sir Martin Sorrell.

The £11bn deal has creating the biggest UK investment company, with 9,000 staff – although 800 jobs are being cut to save cash.

But it has worried investors, who pulled £17.1bn out of the two firms ahead of their merger.