Abrdn sells off Russian assets

Abrdn is selling off Russian assets and has said it will not invest in the coutry for the foreseeable future. The investment giant said funds could not claim to be ESG investors and buy Russian assets. Chief executive Stephen Bird said: “Russia is 1.5% of the world’s opportunity, so we are quite comfortable exploring the other 98.5%.” Yesterday the company confirmed a 47% increase in adjusted operating profit to £323m, with fee-based revenue up 6% to £1.52bn. Shares in the company dropped by more than 5% yesterday after Abrdn admitted it was still losing customers. Clients pulled a net £6.2bn out of its funds last year. Bird argued it was a very strong set of results, saying that the market was wrong to be concerned by “the four years of decline we inherited” instead of the progress made since he took the helm in September 2020. Abrdn, which was created in 2017 from the merger of Standard Life with Aberdeen Asset Management, manages £542bn of assets.   To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews