Mr Windsor has been in charge of abrdn on a permanent basis since September, having held the role on an interim basis since May when he stepped up from the post of finance chief to take over from Stephen Bird.
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Like other mid-sized asset managers, abrdn has struggled to stem outflows from its investment funds since coming into being with the £11 billion merger of Aberdeen Asset Management and Standard Life in 2017. Its most recent trading update showed that clients pulled £4.5bn from its investment funds during the year to September 30, along with net outflows of £3bn from its advisor division which provides products to IFAs.
In January abrdn announced it would undergo a restructuring programme to return the business to an “acceptable level of profitability”. This is expected to lead to around 500 job cuts – equating to a 10% reduction of its workforce in Edinburgh – as layers of management are taken out.
Mr Windsor is now said to be running the rule over the company’s various businesses with a view to cutting non-performing parts and refocusing on core areas. A source told the Reuters news agency that abrdn has been steadily writing down the value of Focus Solutions, with a final writedown of around single-digit millions expected in the full-year results.
A spokesman for abrdn said the group is focusing on its three main businesses: investments, adviser, and its interactive investor (ii) division. The latter, a “do-it-yourself” investment business, saw customer numbers rise by 6% to 430,000 in the year to September, with funds under management up by 13% to £74.5bn.
“There will be parts of the group that do not feature in our future plans, and where we have an opportunity to simplify and become more efficient,” the spokesman said.
“We concluded that Focus Solutions had reached an inflection point where abrdn was no longer the right owner.”
