 | |
_(cropped).jpg) Headquarters at 1 George Street, Edinburgh | |
| aberdeen | |
| Formerly |
|
| Company type | Public |
| LSE: ABDN FTSE 250 Component | |
| ISIN | GB00BF8Q6K64 |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Predecessors |
|
| Founded | 1825; 201 years ago (1825) |
| Headquarters | Edinburgh, Scotland, UK |
Key people |
|
| Revenue |  £1,370 million (2024)[2] |
 £276 million (2024)[2] | |
| £248 million (2024)[2] | |
| AUM | £511.4 billion (2024)[2] |
Number of employees | 4,000 (2025)[3] |
| Subsidiaries | |
| Website | aberdeenplc |
Aberdeen Group plc, trading asaberdeen, is a United Kingdom-basedinvestment company headquartered inEdinburgh, Scotland. It is listed on theLondon Stock Exchange and is a constituent of theFTSE 250 Index. The registered office of the company is atGeorge Street, Edinburgh.[4]
The company changed its trading identity from abrdn to aberdeen on 4 March 2025, and its name from abrdn plc to Aberdeen Group plc on 13 March 2025.[5]
In March 2017,Standard Life reached an agreement to merge withAberdeen Asset Management, in an all-share merger, subject to shareholder approval.[6] The merged company was namedStandard Life Aberdeen.[7]
In May 2017, Standard Life acquired the loss-making AXA Portfolio Services for £31 million. This company housed AXA Elevate, the investment platform fromAxa. At the time of acquisition the platform held £9.8 billion of client assets, boosting the total level of assets held on Standard Life platforms to £36.4 billion.[8]
In October 2017, it was reported that there had been withdrawals of $10 billion from Standard Life Aberdeen's mutual funds over the prior year.[9]
In February 2018, Standard Life Aberdeen initiated the sale of the Standard Life insurance business toPhoenix for £3.2 billion, marking a transition away from its insurance roots to asset management.[10] In April 2018, Aberdeen Standard Investments announced the acquisition of ETF Securities' USexchange-traded funds ('ETF') business in an effort to build a presence in the US ETF market.[11]
SirGerry Grimstone stepped down as chairman on 1 January 2019 and was succeeded by SirDouglas Flint.[12]
Keith Skeoch stood down as chief executive and was succeeded by Stephen Bird in September 2020.[13]
In September 2020 it initiated the acquisition of a 60% interest in Tritax, one of Europe's leading logistics real estate fund managers.[14]
In April 2021, having sold the Standard Life Insurance business to Phoenix in 2018 and having sold the Standard Life name to Phoenix in 2021,[15] the company rebranded asabrdn.[16] The new brand, pronounced "Aberdeen" and developed by the branding agencyWolff Olins, was criticised as difficult to pronounce.[17] The change of name and the rebranding took place in July 2021.[18] The name was received with widespread criticism and was the subject of online jokes. An online poll of investors described the rebrand as an "act of corporate insanity".[19][20][21]
In July 2021, the company sold Parmenion, an investment and technology solutions business that supports financial advice firms, to Preservation Capital Partners.[22]
In May 2022, Abrdn acquiredInteractive Investor, a British subscription-based retail investment services company with over 400,000 customers for £1.49 billion.[23]
In June 2023, the company restructured its financial planning arm, splitting into two models – the 'financial consultant' model and the 'regional advice' model.[24]
In January 2024, it was widely reported that Abrdn were to cut around 10% of its workforce of 5,000 people as part of a £150M restructuring plan.[25] On 24 January 2024, the plans to cut around 500 jobs were confirmed.[26]
In April 2024, Abrdn completed the sale of its European-headquarteredprivate equity business (with £7.4bn assets under management) to Nasdaq-listed Patria Investments for up to £100m. The sale followed the sale of its US-headquartered private equity business to High Vista Strategies in 2023.[27]
In May 2024, Stephen Bird stood down as CEO and Jason Windsor, the then CFO, was appointed as interim group CEO,[28] and formally appointed to the role in September of that year.[29]
On 4 March 2025, the company changed its trading identity to "aberdeen", after its 2021 rebrand to "abrdn" faced widespread criticism. The company also initiated a search for a new chair as Douglas Flint prepared to step down.[30] On 13 March 2025, the company changed its name to "Aberdeen Group plc".[5]
In December 2025, it was announced that Aberdeen Investments would assume management of nine closed-ended funds worth approximately £1.5 billion from US-basedMFS Investment Management. The transaction involves merging the MFS funds and one existing Aberdeen fund into two larger closed-ended funds focused on municipal bonds and multi-sector fixed income assets, subject to shareholder approval.[31]
