Abrdn’s annual profit rose as the asset manager posted higher full-year revenue for the first time since it was formed from a merger in 2017.
Adjusted operating profit for the year to the end of December rose 47% to £323m as revenue increased to £1.52bn from £1.43bn. Pretax profit under IFRS accounting rules rose to £1.12bn from £838m.
Net outflows, excluding those from Lloyds Banking Group, were £3.2bn compared with £12.3bn a year earlier. Abrdn kept its annual dividend unchanged at 14.6p a share.
Abrdn was formed almost five years ago when Aberdeen Asset Management combined with Standard Life in a deal that combined two bastions of the Scottish financial sector. But Standard Life Aberdeen struggled as funds flowed out, including from a long-standing mandate with Lloyds’s Scottish Widows arm.
Chief Executive Stephen Bird was hired in 2020 and in 2021 bought Interactive Investor for £1.5bn to tap the platform’s 400,000 retail customers. He also renamed the group Abrdn in a move that attracted ridicule but which he says marks a break with the past and unifies the company’s brand.
Bird said: “This was our reset year. In 2021 we set out a clear strategy for how we will create long-term sustainable growth and arrest the decline in revenue. For the first time since the merger, we have reported an increase in revenue for the full year.”
