By Charlie Conchie
Abrdn swung to a pre-tax loss last year as investors pulled £10.3bn from its funds in what its chief called “one of the hardest investing years in living memory”.
In its full year results today, the FTSE 100 asset manager posted a pre-tax loss of £615m, down from a profit of £1.1bn a year prior, as net outflows from its funds surged to £10.3bn, up from £3.2bn in 2021.
Assets under management at the firm tumbled eight per cent to £500bn amidst a turbulent period on the markets that has seen investors’ holdings hammered.
Abrdn said its acquisition of retail investment platform interactive investors had helped offset the hit to the assets under management on its platform
In a statement today, chief Stephen Bird said the year was “one of the hardest investing years in living memory.
“Almost all asset classes dropped in value as the cost of money soared to quell the rising tide of inflation,” he said.
He added: “The world in which we and our clients are operating today is radically different from the environment of the past decade,” he said.
We are also actively assessing the impact of these new market dynamics on pension funds and insurers, to ensure that we provide solutions to meet their complex needs.
Each of these trends very much plays to our existing strengths, and we are well positioned to help our clients navigate this new investing world.
The full year results came as Abrdn announced it would offload its discretionary fund management business Abrdn capital to Liechenstein-based private bank LGT for £140m, which is expected to complete in the second half of this year.
Bird said the deal represents “an important step forward in our strategy to focus on our high-growth, platform-led, businesses”.
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