Aberdeen Group Plc (ABDN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hey, Jason. Good to see you. Thanks for taking the time to discuss first half results. To sum it up, where would you say some of the highlights have been during the first half of the year?

Hi, John. Nice to see you. We've had a good 6 months. I'm pleased with the performance that we put in but particularly the delivery against our strategy. We set that out in March, and we went through a series of clear priorities for each of our businesses, underpinned by some targets for the group. And actually, within what's been quite an extraordinary 6 months in terms of external events, we've actually delivered against that strategy and I think we're on the right track.

If we peek through to the underlying businesses, and let's start with ii, a good first half or a strong first half. Can you tell me more?

ii has had a great 6 months on the back of actually excellent performance in 2024 as well. We grew profits 25%, we've had 9% growth in customer numbers and GBP 4 billion of net inflows. And the business is continuing to be very relevant to customers. It's got a very attractive proposition in a good price point, and we're seeing real benefit come through into the growth of the business.

And then when we think about the Adviser business, profits were challenged, but I believe there's more to the story.

Yes. About 12 months ago, I think we decided we needed to reset the pricing in Adviser. It was a tough decision from a P&L perspective, but it's the right decision for us to back the strategy with the right pricing and the right proposition as we seek to return that business to growth. So we made 2 big interventions. One is to improve the service proposition, and the other is to get the revenue at the level where we continue to see growth. And you're starting to see some improvement in the net flows in that business.

Looking at our third business, at the Investments business, my business, looking at the first half of the year, what are your reflections on progress towards some of our strategic goals?

So it's been challenging from a market perspective, but we've got positive net flows in some of our key areas, particularly in fixed income and in quants, where we've seen real growth there. We continue to see a transition from some of the legacy historic products in the equities where at the market level, that's still an outflow. But we've also been able to build a more efficient business. It's a real testament and credits to everybody who's been involved in that, that we've been able to take out as much cost and maintain as efficient a business as we possibly can.

If we step back a little bit, I think in March of this year, you shared forward-looking thoughts on 2026 and our broader global strategy. How are we progressing against some of those goals and metrics that you set forth?

We did set out some clear and ambitious '26 targets. We're continuing to work toward those. The first 6 months, as I said, have taken us forward in terms of delivery against those targets. Everybody at Aberdeen is very clear about our level of ambition and about what it takes to be successful. We're really coming together to start to produce a business with more consistent and more reliable profitability.

Certainly, the first half of the year has been interesting. So I'd love to get your take on the geopolitical environment, the global economic backdrop. And one, where you think we've been, but two, where do you think we're going from here for the second half of the year?

So it's certainly been an interesting and an exciting 6 months, particularly on 1 or 2 days in the middle of April. We're pleased with how the business has performed. And that we've designed a business that supports clients for their long-term investing ambitions, whether that's individuals in the U.K. or whether that's more global institutions. You come to Aberdeen because you've got a long-term goal, is to invest over a period, whether it could be 3, 5, 10 years, whatever that might be. And the whole organization is there to support clients through that. And I'd like to say thank you to everyone at Aberdeen who's been involved in supporting our clients through that and to all of those clients that have worked with us in the first 6 months.

Great. Well, good to speak with you again. Good to see you, and thanks for the insights.