Aberdeen Completes £550 Million Acquisition Of SWIP

Stephen Little

6 May 2014

has completed the acquisition of Scottish Widows Investment Partnership's infrastructure fund management business, completing the purchase of SWIP from Lloyds.

The final deferred top-up payment to Lloyds has been reduced from £39.4 million($66.36 million) to £38.3 to reflect the completion of the infrastructure acquisition, payable to Lloyds at the end of the 12-month period, Aberdeen said in a statement.

The total consideration for the acquisition including the deferred top-up payment is approximately £550 million.

Application has been made to The UK Listing Authority and The London Stock Exchange for a listing of 5,952,000 ordinary shares of 10 pence a share as consideration to trade on The London Stock Exchange.

The deal, which was announced on 18 November 2013, includes the main SWIP business and related private equity fund management arm. The purchase of SWIP's infrastructure fund management business is expected to complete within the next few weeks.

The agreement represents one of the most significant moves to date by Lloyds to spin off parts of its business as the bank seeks to return to full private ownership.

Compared to its plight at the beginning of the century when it was hit with losses in the capital investment trust business, the purchase of SWIP represents a remarkable recovery in fortunes for Aberdeen.

The Lloyds-Aberdeen agreement is an example of transactions made by firms as they look to recover from post-crisis problems.

The deal also comes at a time of continued merger and acquisition activity in the wealth and asset management industries. This year has already seen Singapore-based DBS strike a deal to buy the Asian private bank of Societe Generale, as well as the merger of multi-family office SandAire and private investment office Lord North Street. Other deals have included Old Mutual Wealth’s acquisition of Intrinsic, a network of independent financial advisors.