Aberdeen Asset Management has completed the transition of Scottish Widows Investment Partnership’s (SWIP) active equity portfolios and confirmed the departure of SWIP’s head of dealing and derivatives, Tony Whalley, as part of the post-merger integration process.
Aberdeen purchased SWIP from Lloyds Banking Group for £660 million last November. The deal added approximately £136 billion to Aberdeen’s assets under management. As of 31 March, Aberdeen had £324.5 billion under management, or US$541 billion.
All SWIP-run active equity funds and mandates were migrated over 7 and 8 June. In total, £2.9 billion of assets were transferred, of which £2.2 billion is invested in pan-European portfolios and £0.6 billion in global equity portfolios, with the remainder invested in portfolios across the Americas.
Aberdeen said the former SWIP portfolios will be managed by its existing global and regional equity teams “in accordance to the group-wide investment process”. Prior to the migration, Aberdeen managed £104.4 billion in active equities.
The transition of remaining SWIP portfolios onto the Aberdeen platform – including fixed income, multi-asset and quant equity portfolios – is being staggered over the next 12 months.
As part of the integration of SWIP into Aberdeen’s investment and trading processes, Edinburgh-based Whalley – who was investment director, head of derivatives and equity dealing and a member of SWIP’s equity management group – left the group last week.
According to press officials, Aberdeen intends to maintain trading operations in Edinburgh. Aberdeen’s existing 20-strong trading team across Asia, EMEA and the Americas is led by global head of trading Mandy Pike, who joined the firm in 2001 and was appointed to the group managing board earlier this year.
A spokesperson for Aberdeen commented: “Tony made a significant contribution to the SWIP business and we wish him well in the future.”
Whalley spent 25 years at Scottish Widows, joining the firm from Citigroup Scrimgeour-Vickers in 1989. He has been an active member of the UK institutional trading community as a member of the Investment Management Association and the London Stock Exchange’s institutional advisory groups and as a non-executive director of a number of firms, including BATS Europe.
Whalley is believed to be spending the week fishing, out of mobile reception range.