Martin Gilbert, the chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, thinks that the falling oil price will boost those emerging markets that are net importers of the stuff, as well as the manufacturing industry generally.
Those emerging markets, about 25 per cent of assets under management at Aberdeen after the acquisition of Scottish Widows Investment Partnership in April, could do with all the help they can get. They accounted for much of the outflow of assets over the year to the end of September, £16 billion from Aberdeen’s original business and £4.4 billion from SWIP.
The latter looks like a well-timed deal for Aberdeen, then, rebalancing it towards UK equities. Aberdeen lost about £4.4 billion of funds in the first quarter and another £4.3 billion