Blackrock wins chunk of Lloyd's contract pulled from Standard Life Aberdeen

The rationale behind Standard Life and Aberdeen's £11bn merger was thrown into question earlier this year after its biggest client Lloyds Banking Group ditched a £109bn asset management contract.

Lloyds Banking Group has handed the world's biggest fund manager a £30bn investment contract after axing its deal with Standard Life Aberdeen. 

The bank has picked BlackRock to manage a large slice of its Scottish Widows assets, leaving fund houses to fight for the remaining portion of its £109bn contract. 

The world's biggest banks and money managers have been jostling for a chunk of the mandate ever since Lloyd's said it was pulling the contract from Standard Life Aberdeen earlier this year.  

Aberdeen began managing assets for Lloyds' Scottish Widows in 2014, but Lloyds had the right to axe the deal if the company joined forces with a competitor, as it did with Standard Life in an £11bn tie-up last year. 

The Scottish investment giant is currently in a dispute with the bank over the matter. 

It is not known how the remainder of the assets will be split, but Schroders is widely tipped to be frontrunner. Earlier this week the two sides confirmed they were in discussions about merging their wealth management units. 

Lloyd's said it was "near to finalising arrangements" in respect of the remaining £80bn of assets. Its deal with BlackRock might also include a "strategic partnership" in alternative asset classes, risk management and investment technology, it said.