I have mentioned in blog posts and rather more specifically in conversations over recent months the concerns I have had about the ‘merger’ of Aberdeen Investments (a business whose past record was not one I admired in ethical terms) and Standard Life, a former Victorian era Scottish mutual life office that had a very good track record in running smaller company and UK/European ethical funds, back from the time when ESG was rather less of a greenwashing oppportunity and ethical meant what you would naturally think.
The latest news, that Abrdn is merging its UK and European equity teams, however it gets spun in the press releases, is clearly a cost cutting measure, although it is said that the smaller companies team remains separate (I guess that is really only a semantic concession to the marketing team).
A departure that I think some subscribers will want to think about is that Lesley Duncan, the well thought of investment director and manager of the UK Ethical fund (I own that one myself) is leaving.
The merger of 2 big investment businesses is always going to be about shareholder interests and never those of investors. A change of fund managers in such a situation is a disruption, likely to cause loss of focus and a good reason to put any funds you own that are impacted on watch, or even, subject to tax and financial planning considerations, look for a switch to a more settled alternative.
