Investment firm Abrdn has announced it is rebranding to Aberdeen Group and will use the name Aberdeen as its principal trading identity for its investments and adviser businesses.

The company had rebranded from Standard Life Aberdeen to Abrdn in 2021, but has now gone back to Aberdeen as a “pragmatic decision” and it seeks to look forward with “confidence” and remove “distractions”.

Aberdeen stated that it does not intend to make any changes to its subsidiary legal entity names or the names of its underlying funds at this time, and its LSE ticker will remain as ABDN.

The change was revealed in the firm’s 2024 Final Results report, which also reported an increase in adjusted operating profit from £249m to £255m, with all three of its businesses contributing higher profits than the previous year.

“As we move through 2025 and beyond, we are well positioned as a wealth and investments group with two leading businesses in the fast-growing UK wealth sector, alongside a specialist asset management business that is repositioning its focus on its strengths and where it sees opportunities to drive growth globally,” commented Aberdeen CEO, Jason Windsor.

"Our position in the fast-growing UK wealth market is exciting. Interactive Investor (II) 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. While outflows persisted through 2024, we are working hard to re-establish market leading service levels. We have a strengthened adviser leadership team in place, with a clear plan of action, to deliver necessary improvements to return to growth.”

As part of its strategic overview for its wealth and investments business, Aberdeen outlined three priorities: transforming performance; improving client experience; and strengthening talent and culture.

For its II business, its goal was to sustain efficient growth by building on its ‘differentiated’ proposition and investing in the brand.

On the adviser side, Aberdeen is aiming to return to net inflows by enhancing its proposition and delivering ‘leading’ client service, while for its investments arm it is looking to make a step change in profitability, “specialising in areas of strength and driving improved efficiency”.

Excluding liquidity, gross inflows into Aberdeen’s institutional and retail wealth business were 31 per cent higher in 2024 at £25.5bn, returning to a net inflow of £0.3bn.

Aberdeen stated that its ambition was to be the UK’s leading wealth and investments group, with fast-growing direct and advised wealth platforms and a specialist asset manager that operates worldwide.

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