What are the distinctive characteristics of Aberdeen compared with the companies you’ve previously worked for?
We’re an active management house. The way we invest is very long term. If you have a look at what the firm has been doing publicly around some governance issues and the like, what we do there is quite special.
Our long-term approach is very strong and well-understood by clients. Just being focused on asset management over the long term gives us many positives.
Are you doing anything in relation to fees and the margin question?
This firm has been at the forefront of fee reform and initiatives. It is on record that we are looking into how we can bring a single all-in fee. We have been part of all the Investment Association initiatives to improve disclosure and transparency.
With regards to the FCA market survey, we welcome the fact that closet index tracking with active management fees, is not good for anyone.
We embrace all those proposed reforms and have been looking at what we do around the research and commission bills. This firm will continue to do the right thing.
Are you focusing on any specific geographical markets this year?
The business is organised with three regional heads: EMEA, Asia Pacific and Americas. Focus wise, we’d like to do more out of the UK. We have a big UK presence but I feel we can do more and are starting to do so. Our European business has been pretty strong and it continues to lead the pack.
In the Americas, we are seeing good traction. It’s the world’s largest investment market, so we feel we’ve got more upside there.
Asia is a three-tier region, in that there are some countries that can bring mega flow and business to you, others that are more mixed and those that are more long term.
Indonesia is an example of long-term business building. The mixed business areas that are stable and neatly balanced are Hong Kong and Singapore. Examples of larger countries with big, installed bases of assets are Australia, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
What about product launches this year?
We are looking at doing more with our multi-asset capabilities, some regional multi-asset pieces. The best example was a fantastic £0.5bn win from BlackRock, for our Diversified Growth Fund.
That’s a highly-rated strategy, so the two firms together will have both sides of that solutions coin: absolute return and the diversified return.
We’ve also been thinking about doing more with our active quant capability. We run just under £30bn in active quant and we are looking at a couple of low-volitility products to sit alongside, complementing our other active ranges.
We’ve got a good property business that is picking up some long-term demographic trends and raising good assets. We are also doing a lot with our alternative capabilities, putting them together with other products into solutions or outcomes, for clients.
With Standard Life’s franchise and capabilities, we will be even better placed to take advantage of that enormous, secular industry trend that’s going on.
Where would you like to see the business in a year’s time?
I would like to see the business in fund in-flows. There has been a lot of talk about Aberdeen’s 15 consecutive quarters of fund outflows. There are good reasons for that. There was a bit of a perfect storm about 12 months ago and we’ve had some clients who have had to do things off their own bat.
My main priority is to keep close to clients, making sure we can retain as much business as we deserve to and win as much as we can. That’s what it’s all about.
In the next 12 months, I would love to see more out of the US, for the momentum to continue to grow in Europe, for the UK business do better and for Asia continue on a long-term trend.
