Yahoo Finance Pressure rises on Standard Life Aberdeen ahead of £30bn blow
Investors have pulled more than £30bn out of Standard Life Aberdeen funds in just 12 months, the embattled asset manager is expected to reveal this week amid speculation it could boost its dividend to soften the impact.
Fresh from the heavy blow of Lloyds Banking Group’s decision to terminate its contract to manage £109bn of assets, Standard Life Aberdeen is preparing to lift the lid on painful net outflows from its own funds on Friday.
RBC analyst Gordon Aitken warned Standard Life Aberdeen was in line to report £30.3bn worth of net outflows for 2017, including £10.2bn from the flagship Global Asset Return Strategies account.
Standard Life Aberdeen could add 11th hour sweeteners to its results such as an increased dividend or a new cost savings target in an attempt to placate shareholders.
Investors have become increasingly concerned at the company’s trajectory since the merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management last year.
Mr Aitken said of a dividend increase: “It’s quite an easy thing to do and can be done late in the [results] process.”
He added: “[But] if you chuck a sweetener in there, you can look a bit desperate. They’ve been keen to say this is 5pc of the revenue so it’s not the end of the world.”
Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Laith Khalaf said that investors would be looking for signs of progress that the £200m promised in cost savings from Standard Life and Aberdeen’s £11bn merger was on track.
“2017 was a positive year for markets so next week we’ll get a picture of how much rising asset prices have offset any outflows,” he said.
