Standard Life-aberdeen marriage cleared by City watchdogs

The £11 billion merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management (AAM) has been given the green light by the UK’S financial regulators.

The Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority have given their blessing for the tie-up to proceed, creating one of the world’s biggest fund management groups with some £670bn of assets.

The merger, which is set to complete next month, has already been cleared by the Competition & Markets Authority and the shareholders of both groups. The enlarged company, to be called Standard Life Aberdeen, will be headed up jointly by Stand- ard chief executive Keith Skeoch and his counterpart at AAM, Martin Gilbert.

Announced in March, the merger is targeting cost savings of £200 million a year, with about 800 jobs expected to be lost over a three-year period from a global workforce of 9,000.

In a joint statement yesterday, the firms said: “Standard Life and Aberdeen are pleased to announce that the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority have confirmed their approval to enable the merger between the two groups to proceed.

“The transaction remains subject to certain regulatory approvals in other jurisdictions and to final approval at a court hearing scheduled for 11 August 2017.” 0 Martin Gilbert and Keith Skeoch shake hands on tie-up