Aberdeen ditches much-criticised Abrdn brand

Fund manager and financial provider Abrdn is reverting to the Aberdeen brand it ditched four years ago and dropping its vowel-free name. It revealed the rebrand U-turn in a stock market statement today. It will continue to brand the name with lower case capitals: aberdeen. Aberdeen has a range of investment products and a wrap SIPP. Jason Windsor, chief executive, said: “We are announcing today that we will change the company's name to Aberdeen group plc. “We do not intend to make any changes to our subsidiary legal entity names or the names of our underlying funds (including the CUSIPs or ISINs) at this time, and our LSE ticker will remain ABDN. “We will now start to use "Aberdeen" as the principal trading identity for our Investments and Adviser businesses.” The firm changed its name from Standard Life Aberdeen in 2021 after paying marketing agency Wolff Olins to come up with its new identity. The company, which had been formed by a £3.8bn merger in 2017, launched the rebrand four years later after selling its Standard Life brand name to Phoenix Group, as it exited the UK and European life insurance market. Stephen Bird, then chief executive of Aberdeen who left last year, defended the change at the time and said clients had “fully embraced” the move. However, it prompted a barrage of criticism, with journalists and analysts joking that the company was “dis-emvowelled” and had “irritable vowel syndrome”. Last year Peter Branner, chief investment officer at Aberdeen, hit out at the criticism, saying: “I understand that corporate bullying to some extent is part of the game with the press, even though it’s a little childish to keep hammering the missing vowels in our name. “Would you do that with an individual? How would you look at a person who makes fun of your name day in, day out?” Aberdeen also revealed its annual results today, reporting that outflows slowed 94% to £1.1bn in 2024, from £17.6bn in 2023. Adjusted operating profit rose 2% to £255m as the firm sold off parts of the business last year. Mr Windsor said: "The group grew profit in 2024 for the first time in three years, with each business increasing its contribution. As our momentum shifts to growth, we have a clear focus on improving client experience and shareholder returns. We have strengthened and streamlined our senior leadership team and, with our sharper focus, we are committing to better results again in 2025 and 2026.” He added: "Our position in the fast-growing UK Wealth market is exciting. Interactive investor had excellent performance in 2024, achieving the number one position in the UK D2C market for net flows, and we expect continuation of this growth. Adviser is in the number two position in an attractive growth market.”

Aberdeen ditches much-criticised Abrdn brand

Related items

News from Twitter