Abrdn
Standard Life Aberdeen has come up with a solution to address its recent woes: drop most of the vowels in its name.
The asset manager announced plans to rebrand as Abrdn as it seeks to “modernise” its brand following a difficult few years for the business.
The FTSE 100 company insisted that the name change to Abrdn – pronounced Aberdeen – would create a “modern, agile, digitally enabled brand”.
The move comes after the financial services titan sold its Standard Life brand to insurer Phoenix in February.
Stephen Bird, who took over as chief executive last September, said: “Our new brand Abrdn builds on our heritage and is modern, dynamic and, most importantly, engaging for all of our client and customer channels.
“It is a highly differentiated brand that will create unity across the business, replacing five different brand names that have each been operating independently.”
The asset manager has struggled since it was formed in a £11bn merger in 2017 between Aberdeen Asset Management and rival Standard Life, with shares tumbling by nearly a third since the deal was finalised.
The pandemic has weighed on SLA and last month the company cut its dividend by a third after annual pre-tax profits tumbled by 17pc.
The Abrdn rebranding process will begin in the summer with the aim of creating a “digitally enabled brand that will also be used for all the company’s client-facing businesses globally”.
There will also be a “full stakeholder engagement plan to manage the transition”, the company said.
Shares rose 0.8pc to 274.5p in early trading.