Aberdeen's December-end AUM rise 9% year-on-year
Positive performance mirrors sector trends
Peer Quilter posts record quarterly inflows
ABDN shares up 2.6%, QLT up 3.6%
Adds shares in paragraph 3 and 4, details from Quilter's trading statement in 4, details throughout
Jan 21 (Reuters) - British money manager Aberdeen ABDN.L reported better-than-expected flows and managed assets on Wednesday, helped by better market performance last year and mirroring trends seen across the sector.
Active money managers have begun to signal an improvement in their financial health recently, after years of struggling to compete with the rising popularity of low-cost index tracking funds offered by U.S. giants such as BlackRock and Vanguard.
Aberdeen shares were up 2.6% at 220.6 pence by 0837 GMT. The company's shares gained 46% last year, outperforming the wider FTSE 250 index.
Shares of rival Quilter QLT.L, which has a large client base of high-net-worth customers, also rose 3.6% on Wednesday as it posted record quarterly inflows of 2.37 billion pounds for the fourth quarter, driven by its affluent division.
While Aberdeen reported outflows of 3.9 billion pounds ($5.24 billion) for 2025, which included a previously flagged large mandate withdrawal, the figure still came ahead of expectations, as per analysts at Jefferies and JP Morgan.
Investors have also largely warmed up to Aberdeen CEO Jason Windsor’s strategy focused on trimming costs, improving profit growth and expanding its wealth unit. Windsor also ditched the company’s widely-mocked truncated abrdn brand last year.
Meanwhile, money managers Schroders SDR.L and Ashmore ASHM.L issued forecast-beating trading updates last week, lifted by rallying markets last year.
Aberdeen's managed-assets rose 9% year-on-year to 556 billion pounds, while Quilter's jumped 18% to 141.2 billion pounds in 2025.
($1 = 0.7443 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain Withers in London, Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala, Rashmi Aich and Louise Heavens)
((Yamini.Kalia@thomsonreuters.com))
