AAM offloads Credit Suisse funds

Published on Monday 13 July 2009 21:27

ABERDEEN Asset Management has offloaded a group of funds it acquired from Credit Suisse, selling some £858 million in assets under management to Surrey-based Premier.

Privately-owned asset manager Premier is paying AAM 23m for two open-ended investment companies (OEICs) which manage ten UK-based open ended funds.

The assets were part of the 36 billion in funds AAM acquired from Credit Suisse, a deal which made the Aberdeen-headquartered group the largest independent fund manager in the UK.

In a statement, AAM said that it was in the best interest of investors in the funds for them to be transferred to the ownership of Premier.

"Given the scale and complexity of the (Credit Suisse] acquisition, it was inevitable that certain parts of the business would be less suited to integration into the Aberdeen business model."

The multiple Premier is paying for the assets is higher than that which AAM paid Credit Suisse.

The 297m AAM paid Credit Suisse was around 0.8 per cent of the 36bn assets being acquired, while Premier's price is a multiple of more than 2.6 per cent of assets.

AAM is now integrating the Credit Suisse assets, but it has not ruled out seeking further acquisitions, in particular in the US.

Chief executive Martin Gilbert is thought to regard the current low valuations of asset managers as a "once in a generation" opportunity to grow through acquisition at value.