Standard Life Aberdeen to change name to “Abrdn” By Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) -British asset manager Standard Life (LON:SLA) Aberdeen said on Monday it plans to change its name to “Abrdn PLC” as part of a plan to shore up and modernise its brand identity.

The new name – which will be pronounced “Aberdeen” – comes after the company sold its Standard Life brand to life insurer Phoenix earlier this year.

“Our new brand Abrdn builds on our heritage and is modern, dynamic and, most importantly, engaging for all of our client and customer channels,” said chief executive Stephen Bird, who joined the firm last year.

“It is a highly-differentiated brand that will create unity across the business, replacing five different brand names that have each been operating independently.”

The Phoenix deal came after Edinburgh-headquartered Standard Life merged with Aberdeen-based Aberdeen Asset Management in 2017.

Phoenix took on the Standard Life brand from Standard Life Aberdeen in February and sold back some of the businesses it bought from SLA in 2018, as the pair simplified their partnership.

The Abrdn rebranding process will begin in the summer with the aim of creating a “digitally-enabled brand that will also be used for all the company’s client-facing businesses globally”, SLA said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the firm said the name change will enable the company to own digital assets such as apps and websites, without confusion with the city of Aberdeen.