Double Open golf winner Phil Mickelson's success in the Scottish Open has helped raise the profile of sponsors Aberdeen Asset Management in the key US market, the group has claimed, as it reassures followers that it is not over-exposed to emerging markets.
Aberdeen's share price dived from a record 492p in late May to 360p last month partly reflecting its emerging market bias, but has since rallied to 414p compared with just 212p a year ago.
The supposed asset bias was cited when Goldman Sachs last month removed Aberdeen from its 'buy' list, prompting chief executive Martin Gilbert to respond that the group was "not as concentrated as is made out" but also that he was "trying to broaden the business".
Aberdeen has £212 billion of assets, of which £124bn are equities including 36% in emerging markets and 32% in Asia Pacific.
However, marketing manager James Thorneley noted yesterday that the Asia franchise also covered developed markets such as Australia, Korea, Singapore and Japan.
He said: "Aberdeen are long-term investors, and if you look at it from a 10 to 20-year perspective, the world's wealth and balance of power and economic growth are certainly moving towards emerging markets. Short-term, QE may be bad news for them but long-term the fundamentals remain the same."
Meanwhile Aberdeen's Scottish Open sponsorship is reaping rewards , Mr Thorneley said. "Phil Mickelson's success at the Open has certainly raised our profile as along with the European Tour we persuaded NBC in the US to broadcast live coverage of the event."
He added: "We remain focused on growing our US business organically, given the US is home to around half the world's wealth and only 20% of our AuM (assets under management) is from US clients."
Mr Thorneley said Aberdeen was keen to grow its fixed income and property assets on the back of improving performance in both, as well as to build up the multi-asset and other "solutions" strategies which were in growing demand from pension funds in the UK and overseas.
It is also still interested in bolt-on acquisitions such as the recent swoops on US global high yield manager Artio Global Investors and the 50.1% stake in private equity specialist SVG Advisers.
Mr Thorneley is in Edinburgh with Mr Gilbert and colleagues from across the group for today's funeral of Aberdeen fund manager Andrew McMenigall, tragically killed with colleague Toby Wallace on a charity bike ride in Cornwall earlier this month.
He said: "We've been inundated with messages of condolence from clients, contacts and people who knew them from around the world which have been a comfort to the families.
"Andrew and Toby were inspiring individuals who will be greatly missed."
Mr Wallace's funeral is in Arbroath tomorrow.
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