abrdn’s US subsidiary has completed the sale of its US private equity and venture capital capabilities to US-based alternative investment boutique HighVista Strategies.
In a statement, the firm said the sale involves the transfer of approximately $4bn in assets under management and approximately 30 employees.
The move, announced in July, follows a comprehensive review of abrdn’s private markets business, which concluded that the US private equity and venture capital capabilities would be “best developed under a different ownership and management structure”.
abrdn said the sale underlines its commitment to exit non-core businesses that “no longer align to its overall offering or product strategy”.
According to abrdn’s results for the first half of 2023, the sale to HighVista Strategies is expected to result in an IFRS profit on disposal of subsidiaries and other operations of approximately £17m.
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The results, which were released in early August, also showed that profits across abrdn’s investment arm have fallen 66%, while heavy redemptions continued to weigh on assets under management.
Stephen Bird, abrdn CEO, said: “The sale of our US private markets business to HighVista is a further step in delivering on our group strategy.
“We have made strong progress in simplifying our investments business, focusing on products that are right for our clients, where we have strength and scale.”
In April, Reuters reported abrdn had been unable to find a buyer for its entire private equity business, which had £12bn in AUM. The report also stated the firm would be planning to split the division and sell it in batches to attract more bids.
The package of assets spans the UK, US and continental Europe, and its sale has been pushed by investors in order to boost declining returns and offload non-core assets.
Source: Investment Week
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