Aberdeen head leaves in restructure

Aberdeen Asset Managementhas restructured its Australian management team, resulting in the departure of former chief executive officer Ouma Sananikone.

The restructure comes in the wake of a review of the Australian operations, since Aberdeen entered the market with its acquisition of EquitiLink in October last year.

Aberdeen director Richard Fabricius says the departure of Sananikone was a mutual decision, stemming from the reduced role of the CEO after the businesses’ integration.

“It is removing a layer of management and restructuring as appropriate,” he says.

Also part of the Australian business review was the sale of Aberdeen’s 50 per cent stake in financial planning and superannuation groupChifley Financial Services. The Chifley business was picked up by the Local Government and Energy Industries superannuation schemes two months ago, and according to Chifley financial planning general manager Peter Dawson, the deal is “all bedded down”.

Fabricius says the decision to sell off the Chifley stake was part of Aberdeen’s focus as a pure investment manager.

“The decision was to disinvest ourselves of non core activities, globally,” he says.

We reviewed the Chifley business and saw it as a distraction. It had potential but was not profitable in our terms.”

Fabricius says the long term view is to bring in group experience into the market but he says the local team plans on developing existing business in Australia first.

“The initial focus is to expand on the established strength of fixed income and Australian equity products and concentrate on those,” he says.

Sananikone’s responsibilities will be partially transferred to Singapore, Fabricius says, while Australian management will cover local issues. Fabricius says he will take on a role in institutional development, describing himself as the ‘local man’ on the institutional side.

The restructure also sees the Australian management committee now reporting directly to the Singapore office and to director and head of operations, Hugh Young.

The Australian fixed interest team will report to head of fixed interest James Blair based in Singapore, while former Singapore based equity investment director Chong Yoon Chou will now oversee equities from a Sydney base.