Will Standard Life Aberdeen Be a Winner or a Zombie?
Now that he's flying solo as CEO, Keith Skeoch has got to get cracking on retaining clients, boosting returns and selling assets.
It’s his time to shine.
Photographer: Simon Dawson/BloombergIt’s showtime for Keith Skeoch. Almost three years since he and Martin Gilbert agreed to create Standard Life Aberdeen Plc, he’s now flying solo as chief executive officer of the U.K.’s biggest standalone asset manager. For the fund behemoth to be valued by investors and analysts at more than the sum of its parts, it needs to either consistently outperform its benchmarks, or unlock the value of its captive assets — or, better yet, both.
It won’t be easy. The storm engulfing the fund management industry has strengthened since Gilbert’s Aberdeen Asset Management and Skeoch’s Standard Life merged — and the difficulties of combining two different cultures have arguably deterred rivals from seeking similar tie-ups. Customers have withdrawn money in every single quarter since the merger was completed in August 2017, reducing assets under management to 577.5 billion pounds ($753 billion) at the mid-year point, from 670 billion pounds when the deal was completed .