Aberdeen snaps up Edinburgh
13 April 2012
ABERDEEN Asset Management, the firm at the heart of the split-cap investment trusts selling scandal, has bought Edinburgh Fund Managers in an all-share deal worth £36m.
Aberdeen is issuing new shares to pay for the businesses but will take £27m in cash from a sale of Edinburgh's unit trust business to New Star Asset Management, along with £6m worth of New Star shares.
Aberdeen will retain the investment trust business. Edinburgh managing directors Rod MacRae and Anne Richards will stay on. Richards pockets new Aberdeen shares worth about £164,000.
The deal values Edinburgh Fund Managers at 126p per share, a 71.5% premium to the closing price of 73 1/2p on 1 July when sales talks broke.
