Stephen Bird

While the company also reported a drop in assets under management to £532 billion (FY 2020: £535bn), while its fee-based revenue was 7% higher during the six month period and adjusted operating profits rose by 52% compared to the year before.

The fund management firm rebranded from Standard Life Aberdeen to abrdn last month.

abrdn’s net outflows dropped to £5.6bn, including liquidity net outflows of £3.7bn

The firm has also announced that it will acquire AI wealth management firm Exo Investing from Nucoro for an undisclosed sum. 

The deal is part of abrdn’s plans to expand its wealth management business.

abrdn said EXO’s automated ETF-based wealth management proposition, driven by artificial intelligence, will help it develop an industry-leading technology solution for investors.

Exo Investing will be rebranded under the abrdn name in the second half of the year.

The firm has announced an interim divident of 7.3p per share.

Stephen Bird, chief executive of abrdn, commented: “We have made a strong start to the year and our three-year growth plan. Each of our three growth vectors have delivered higher revenue and profits, contributing to the highest overall rates of growth since the merger.”

Commenting on the Exo Investing acquisition, he said: “Exo was the first of its kind to offer a fully automated wealth management platform, leveraging machine learning to feed into portfolio decision-making.

“There is a downward pressure on fees, changing customer expectations and increasing regulatory requirements - it’s important to address these issues by providing a highly-scalable, next-generation service to investors.”

Lennart Asshoff, CEO, Nucoro, added: “We are delighted to help enable abrdn’s ambition to make investing easier and better for clients. We built Exo Investing on the Nucoro Platform to fulfil the vision of democratising wealth management by harnessing the power of cutting-edge investment technologies. abrdn’s forward-looking digital strategy makes the company both an ideal partner for Nucoro and the ideal home for Exo to drive that vision and use its reach to deliver the proposition to customers.”

Mr Bird concluded: “We are at the start of the journey. At abrdn we are building a new future, starting from now.”