Standard Life's £11bn merger with AAM clears final hurdle
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The move will see shares in AAM suspended from trading at the close of business today before they are cancelled from the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning.
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Hide AdThe only step now needed to create the merged entity, called Standard Life Aberdeen, is for a copy of the court order to be delivered to the Registrar of Companies in Scotland. This is expected to happen on Monday, at which point the tie-up with become effective.
Announced in March, the merger is targeting savings of £200 million a year, with about 800 jobs expected to be lost over a three-year period from a global workforce of 9,000. The deal creates a global fund management giant with some £670bn of assets.
Under the merger, each AAM share held by investors will be exchange for 0.757 shares in Standard Life, which were valued at 426.8p a piece at the close of trading yesterday.
Figures earlier this week from Standard Life, led by chief executive Keith Skeoch, revealed a 6 per cent rise in operating profits to £362m for the six months to the end of June, while assets under management edged up 1 per cent to £362bn.
But the group’s last results as an independent company before its merger with AAM were overshadowed by outflows of £5.6bn from its flagship Global Absolute Returns Strategies (Gars) fund in the first six months of the year.
Standard Life Aberdeen will be jointly headed by Skeoch and his counterpart at AAM, Martin Gilbert. The group will be chaired by Standard Life chairman Sir Gerry Grimstone, with AAM’s chairman Simon Troughton serving as deputy.