Aberdeen Group has sold an aggregate of 52,000,000 ordinary shares in Standard Life – representing approximately 5.2% of its issued share capital – at a price of 839 pence per share; raising approximately \u00a3436m.<\/p>\n
Following settlement of the placing, which is expected to take place on 12 October, Aberdeen’s residual shareholding will represent approximately 5.2% of Standard Life’s issued share capital – having previously owned 104 million ordinary shares.<\/p>\n
Aberdeen intends to deploy the proceeds in accordance with its “disciplined capital allocation policy”, focused on maintaining a strong balance sheet, investing selectively in the business to support sustainable profitable growth, reducing and optimising debt over time and delivering sustainable returns to shareholders.<\/p>\n
Consistent with these priorities, Aberdeen expects to redeem its \u00a3210m of additional tier one debt at its first call date in December, as announced with its half-year results.<\/p>\n
Aberdeen also stated that its dividend policy remains unchanged. The placing has no impact on existing group targets of adjusted operating profit of at least \u00a3300m and net capital generation of approximately \u00a3300m.<\/p>\n
Chief executive Jason Windsor commented: “The transaction announced today is further progress to simplify our group, as we seek to deliver on our ambition to become the UK’s leading wealth and investments business.<\/p>\n
“We see attractive opportunities to invest in growth and will continue to allocate capital where we believe it can generate the best returns for shareholders, while maintaining a strong balance sheet.<\/p>\n
“Aberdeen and Standard Life have worked in close partnership for many years, and we look forward to continuing to deliver as a key asset management partner to Standard Life.”<\/p>\n
Standard Life was not a party to the placing and will not receive any proceeds or shares in connection with it.<\/p>\n
Evercore Partners International is acting as lead financial adviser to Aberdeen, while Goldman Sachs International and JPMorgan Securities have been appointed as joint global coordinators and bookrunners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The group plans to use the proceeds to ‘invest selectively’ in the business to support sustainable profitable growth, ‘reducing and optimising debt over time’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":278857,"featured_media":464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127685],"coauthors":[137126],"class_list":["post-8057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-financial-services","tag-edinburgh-lothians","tag-featured-story"],"yoast_head":"\n