Campbell Fleming told International Adviser in an exclusive interview that the combined US assets under management had already almost reached £100bn ($128bn, €118bn).
“You don’t have to be Einstein to work out that there are some regions where we will want to keep the combined headcount as full as possible. Aberdeen’s chief executive Martin Gilbert has been clear for example, that we’d like to do better in the United States.
“We’ve got two teams of people there now that could really go after the US market, in a broader way, and hopefully with an improved product set.”
He added that no firm has ever really succeeded globally unless they have been very large, or dominant, in their home market. “This gives us a truly British powerhouse that can compete globally,” he said.
Fleming said the two companies had not particularly overlapping client relationships with 80 different countries, and that the combined entity made it the largest manager of outsourced insurance assets in the world.
“It helps that both firms were founded in Scotland, and that no-nonsense Scottish, hard-working approach to life will both firms.”
He further said that the merger would accelerate Standard Life’s desire to become a global investment management company with a “strong life, pensions and wealth capability”.
