UK's Aberdeen signals improving momentum as flows and assets beat forecasts

Jan 21 (Reuters) - British money manager ‍Aberdeen reported better-than-expected flows and managed assets on Wednesday, helped by better market ⁠performance last year and mirroring trends seen across the sector.

Active money managers have begun to signal an improvement in their financial health recently, after years of ​struggling to compete with the rising popularity of low-cost index tracking funds offered by U.S. giants such as BlackRock and Vanguard.

Aberdeen shares were up 2.6% at 220.6 pence by 0837 GMT. The company's shares gained ‍46% last year, outperforming the wider FTSE 250 index.

Shares of rival Quilter, ‌which has a large client base of high-net-worth customers, also rose 3.6% on Wednesday as it

posted

record quarterly inflows ‌of 2.37 billion pounds for the fourth quarter, driven by its affluent division.

While Aberdeen reported outflows of 3.9 billion pounds ($5.24 billion) for 2025, which ‌included a previously

flagged large

mandate withdrawal, the figure still came ahead of expectations, as per ​analysts at Jefferies and JP Morgan.

Investors have also largely warmed up to Aberdeen CEO Jason Windsor’s strategy focused on trimming costs, improving profit growth and expanding ⁠its wealth unit. Windsor also ditched the company’s widely-mocked ‍truncated abrdn brand last year.

Meanwhile, money managers Schroders and Ashmore

issued

forecast-beating trading updates last week, lifted by rallying ​markets last year.

Aberdeen's managed-assets rose 9% year-on-year ⁠to 556 billion pounds, while Quilter's jumped 18% to 141.2 billion pounds in 2025.

Abrdn

Quilter

Schroders

Ashmore Group

BlackRock

Maven I&g 4

JPMorgan Chase