STANDARD Life Aberdeen has emerged victorious from a dispute with Lloyds sparked by the bank’s decision to pull the plug on a £109 billion fund management contract.
The Edinburgh investment giant has been locked in arbitration with Lloyds since it challenged the move by the bank’s Scottish Widows business to terminate the deal on February 14, 2018.
Standard Life Aberdeen has been managing the assets as a consequence of the acquisition by Aberdeen Asset Management of the Scottish Widows Investment Partnership in 2014.
Scottish Widows chief Antonio Lorenzo argued that the merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management in 2017 had “resulted in our assets being managed by a material competitor”.
Now, following arbitration, Standard Life Aberdeen has this morning announced that the tribunal has ruled in its favour.
Chief executive Keith Skeoch said: “Now that the arbitration panel has ruled in our favour, we will carefully consider our next steps, working constructively with LBG (Lloyds Banking Group) to bring the matter to resolution."
Scottish Widows reportedly said it was “disappointed” with the ruling and would proceed with plans to transfer the assets to BlackRock and Schroders.
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