SHARE OF THE WEEK

THE fund manager formerly known as Standard Life Aberdeen is releasing its first halfyear results this week since losing most of the vowels in its name and becoming Abrdn.

Investors will be hoping profits aren’t disappearing at the same rate.

The firm, which was formed through a 2017 merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management, has been trying to escape a poor run of performance which has dogged the firm since the deal.

Under the leadership of Stephen Bird, who took over from Standard Life veteran Keith Skeoch as chief executive last September, Abrdn has mounted a turnaround.

The fund manager is trying to cut costs, improve its investment performance and pull in more clients.

Nicholas Hyett, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said Abrdn ‘has been exceptionally unexceptional for some time’.

He added: ‘We’re only in the very early days of the new strategy, and tangible progress next week is likely to be minimal.’

The firm has already been shaking up the top team of its investment management business, as its long-standing chief investment officer Rod Paris prepares to retire at the end of the year.

Rather than replacing him with one person, Abrdn has decided that the leaders of all its different arms – public markets, real assets, the solutions business which advises institutions and the central investments pillar, which has responsibility for governance, investment oversight and the investment platform – will all report directly to Bird.