Aberdeen Asset Management buys investment manager Advance Emerging Capital

Aberdeen Asset Management has acquired London-based investment group Advance Emerging Capital, boosting its assets under management by £409 million.

AEC managed 409 million pounds in assets across a range of investment funds as June 30, the two largest of which are the Advance Developing Markets Fund Limited and Advance Frontier Markets Fund Limited.

The fund launch was reported to be part of wider strategy by Aberdeen to diversify and grow its Solutions on the back of its recent acquisitions of Arden Asset Management LLC and Flag Capital Management.

They will manage the funds independently from Aberdeen’s direct equity and fixed income teams in order to avoid any potential conflicts of interests.

When the transaction is complete, the four members of staff including co-CIOs Bernard Moody and Andrew Lister will move into Aberdeen’s London office and will be part of the group’s alternatives business which is led by Andrew McCaffery.

Chief executive Martin Gilbert says: “The acquisition of Advance Emerging Capital brings to Aberdeen a dedicated and highly experienced fund management team, expands further our closed end fund business and adds to the range of alternative investment capabilities we already offer”.

“Sitting within Aberdeen’s rapidly growing alternatives business will, we believe, enable us to share ideas and best practice to the benefit of our existing investors”.

This follows the news earlier this month that Aberdeen confirmed it would acquire platform and discretionary fund manager Parmenion.

In July, the firm announced that its overall assets under management had dipped £23bn to £307bn in the second quarter of the year because of rough market conditions and punishing currency exchange rates. The remainder of the equity was held by management.