Trading Update

ABERDEEN ASSET MANAGEMENT PLC

TRADING UPDATE - THREE MONTHS TO 31 DECEMBER 2016

Highlights

· Assets under management £302.7 billion (30 September 2016: £312.1 billion)

· Net outflows of £10.5 billion, partly offset by £3.3 billion asset appreciation

· Bulk of net outflows were largely low margin and anticipated

· £2.2 billion reduction in AuM due to rationalisation of US Fixed Income business

· Growing interest in our wider range of capabilities

Martin Gilbert, Chief Executive of Aberdeen, commented:

"Investor sentiment had been improving steadily in the early part of the quarter, but stalled following the US presidential election result with investors putting asset allocation decisions on hold. Encouragingly, despite the market volatility our equity strategies produced strong returns for the year."

"While growing interest in a number of our strategies is likely to continue to be masked, in the short-term, by significant withdrawals by a small number of clients, I am encouraged by the progress being made. Overall Aberdeen remains in good shape, we have a strong balance sheet, a global client base and wide range of capabilities to meet the needs of investors."

Gross inflows during the quarter were £10.2 billion (quarter to 30 September 2016: £8.4 billion). The bulk of the net outflows were lower margin and included the two large redemptions (£4.2 billion) of active equity mandates from a UK wealth manager and a Sovereign Wealth Fund that we reported in our 2016 results announcement, as well as anticipated structural outflows from certain institutional clients. A further £2.4 billion is scheduled to be withdrawn from lower-margin portfolios during the current quarter, in addition to the normal level of structural outflows.

In October, we decided to rationalise our US Fixed Income business by focusing on our US credit and Total Return Bond strategies, which we consider to provide greater opportunities for growth, and to withdraw from managing US Core and Core-Plus mandates. Consequently, we have seen an AuM reduction of £2.2 billion during the quarter, and we expect a further reduction of approximately £1 billion in the early part of 2017.

We continue to make encouraging progress across all asset classes, with a healthy level of client interest and demand. In particular, we are beginning to see traction for our multi-asset strategies, as illustrated by the proposed transfer of a closed-end fund mandate to be managed by Aberdeen's Diversified Multi-Asset team.

Our core equity strategies have produced strong performance against their respective benchmarks in 2016, with performance particularly strong in the period before the US election result, while our fixed income strategies continued to produce solid returns.

For further information please contact:

Aberdeen Asset Management PLC + 44 (0) 20 7463 6000

Martin Gilbert

Bill Rattray

Maitland + 44 (0) 20 7379 5151

Kate O'Neill

Sundeep Tucker

ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT AT 31 DECEMBER 2016

NEW BUSINESS FOR 3 MONTHS TO 31 DECEMBER 2016 - EQUITIES

 NEW BUSINESS FOR 3 MONTHS TO 31 DECEMBER 2016 - FIXED INCOME