Credit Suisse in funds sale to Aberdeen
ABERDEEN Asset Management announced the completion of a deal to buy a number of funds from Credit Suisse yesterday and said its assets under management would rise by £36.4bn as a result.
The transaction, which will create the UK’s largest listed fund manager, sees Aberdeen hand 207.5m shares to Credit Suisse for its UK, US, Swiss, German, French and Japanese funds. The Swiss bank will end up with a 23.9 per cent stake in Aberdeen.
The deal is worth £297.6m based on Aberdeen’s closing share price of 124p on 30 June, outstripping the £250m price predicted when the transaction was first announced at the end of last year.
The acquisitions add to the funds in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia that Aberdeen bought from Credit Suisse earlier this year.
“The way our two businesses have come together has been very encouraging and confirms my belief that this transaction will be of great long-term benefit to our shareholders and also our existing and new clients,” said Martin Gilbert, chief executive of Aberdeen.
Credit Suisse put the funds up for sale last year after a strategic review, attracting initial interest from Schroders, who were eventually beaten to the deal by Aberdeen.
The final purchase price could yet be revised, depending on performance during June and adjustments to predicted net run-rate revenues.