7th Oct 2026 21:15
(Alliance News) - Aberdeen Group PLC on Wednesday said it plans to halve its stake in London-based retirement savings provider Standard Life PLC through a share sale to institutional investors.
The Edinburgh-based wealth and asset manager intends to sell 52 million shares of its 104.1 million holding in Standard Life, reducing its interest to 5.2% in the FTSE 100 listing from 10.3% currently. The sale price will be determined through an accelerated book-building process to institutional investors.
At Wednesday's closing price of 871 pence, the share sale would be worth GBP452.9 million.
Aberdeen said it will continue to be a key partner to Standard Life under existing asset management arrangements and remain one of its largest shareholders.
Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management PLC completed an GBP11 billion merger in 2017 to form Standard Life Aberdeen PLC.
In 2018, the group sold its UK and European life/insurance business Standard Life Assurance to Phoenix Group. The parent company dropped the Standard Life name and rebranded as abrdn in July 2021 and subsequently changed its name to Aberdeen Group.
Aberdeen intends to use proceeds in accordance with its "disciplined capital allocation policy", which is focused on maintaining a strong balance sheet, investing selectively in the business to support sustainable profitable growth, reducing and optimising debt over time, and delivering sustainable returns to shareholders.
Consistent with this, Aberdeen expects to redeem its GBP210 million of additional tier 1 debt at its first call date in December, as announced with half year 2026 results.
Aberdeen confirmed that its dividend policy remains unchanged and the placing has no impact on its existing 2026 targets of adjusted operating profit of at least GBP300 million and net capital generation of GBP300 million, and Aberdeen remains confident in their delivery.
Chief Executive Jason Windsor said the sale is further progress to simplify the group.
"We see attractive opportunities to invest in growth and will continue to allocate capital where we believe it can generate the best returns for shareholders, while maintaining a strong balance sheet," he added.
Shares in Aberdeen fell 1.4% to 234.40 pence each in London on Wednesday. Standard Life ended down 1.0% at 871.00p.
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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