Aberdeen earns thumbs-up on Deutsche

Aberdeen Asset Management has earned a cautious thumbs up from ratings house Morningstar on the manner in which it has handled the acquisition of Deutsche Bank’s local equities funds management business.

In an assessment issued this week, Morningstar said it remained cautious but more upbeat in its view of the Aberdeen strategy now that the changes had been completed.

“The Deutsche acquisition has been handled effectively and Aberdeen has progressively removed incumbent positions to end up with a portfolio that reflects its own investment views,” the ratings house assessment said.

It noted that examples of this had included the removal of Allco Equity Partners, Centro Properties, and Commander Communications.

“The team of five runs a well-versed investment process and the result is a concentrated vanilla portfolio exuding stability,” the Morningstar assessment said.

“While all the pieces now appear to be in place for Aberdeen, we remain cautious about the team’s lack of experience and depth relative to peers. We also have some misgivings about the less than ideal remuneration structure — bonuses are linked to the performance of the Aberdeen business, rather than encouraging key investment staff to have skin in the game,” it said.