Standard Life Aberdeen hit by £7.6bn outflows during month one of marriage

According to a new analysis carried out by the Morningstar and the Financial Times, Standard Life Aberdeen was the worst-selling fund house in September, the first full month since the completion of the merger.

It was also revealed that the aggregate outflows from the firms while still separate entities over the first nine months of the year is also worse than any other European-headquartered asset manager.

In the year to September, just over $5.5bn left Standard Life, while $4.5bn was pulled from Aberdeen.

Flagship funds such as the Global Absolute Return Strategies have seen disappointing performance which could have caused investors to pull money, Morningstar senior analyst of manager research David Holder told the FT.

He said: “Part of the synergies of the deal is reducing personnel…. have huge uncertainty over who will be managing portfolios in the future. It is entirely legitimate that clients are sitting on their hands, or prospective clients are not investing, until they get more information.”

A spokesman for investment arm Aberdeen Standard Investments said that some “structural outflows” were anticipated by the firm, and that performance and interest in emerging markets, an Aberdeen specialty, was improving.

They said: “Our recently completed merger positions Aberdeen Standard Investments well to service the evolving needs of investors going forward across alternatives, solutions, smart beta and real assets, as well as traditional active equities and fixed income.”