The firm is in advanced negotiations to rent space on the lower floors of the refurbished former City of London office of the Royal Bank of Scotland at 280 Bishopsgate.

abrdn is parting ways with Bow Bells House, an office block in St Paul’s where Aberdeen Asset Management, which merged with Standard Life in 2017, has been located since 2009.

The firm’s London office footprint will decline from about 70,000 sq ft to 40,000 sq ft as its employees shift to hybrid working, The Times reports. 

The planned new office in London was first reported by EG, the property news publication. The refurbished building, which has been branded Duo Spitalfields, will include a new rooftop terrace and balconies.

abrdn declined to comment on the new London office, but on the subject of blended working, a spokesperson told Scottish Financial News: “We started with a phased approach to returning to the office which allowed for around a third of colleagues in our offices at any one time.

“We are now evolving to the next stage of our plan which is to moving to a blended working model where colleagues will work from both home and the office and will come to the office to collaborate, connect and coach.

“We envisage this to be around two days a week for most colleagues from early September. The time and days spent in the office will depend on the type of work, and in discussion and agreement with a colleague’s manager.

“We will continue to respond to government guidance on COVID, but it’s our intention that blended working will our default approach going forward.”