Asset management firm Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) will sell its IFA platform Parmenion, International Adviser has learned.
An auction could be launched on the London Stock Exchange as early as 30 November 2020, according to Sky News.
Fenchurch Advisory Partners, a subsidiary of French investment bank Natixis, will reportedly handle the sale.
It is still unclear how much money SLA could get from the sale of the platform, but analysts claim the sum could range between £150m and £200m.
Parmenion currently manages around £6.5bn ($8.6bn, €7.3bn) of investments on behalf of IFAs, its website says.
The platform was acquired by Aberdeen Asset Management in 2016, under the leadership of former chief executive Martin Gilbert. But when Aberdeen and Standard Life merged the following year to create SLA, the combined business had a number of platforms servicing IFAs.
Simplification process
Stephen Bird, chief executive of Standard Life Aberdeen, said: “Since my appointment in September, I have been intensely focused on how we develop our strategy, take out cost and complexity, and reconfigure our business around our key growth vectors – our investments, adviser and direct to customer businesses.
“Parmenion is a fantastic and highly regarded business but we need to simplify our offering to financial advisers. We will focus on our two adviser platforms, Wrap and Elevate, which operate on the same core technology.
“In the coming months we will be simplifying our model by merging their underlying technology, while retaining differentiated propositions for advisers.”
