THE boss of Edinburgh fund management giant abrdn has declared it will not invest in Russia and Belarus for the “foreseeable future” as the west continues to squeeze the Russian economy amid its continuing assault on Ukraine.

Stephen Bird told journalists this morning that abrdn, the company formerly called Standard Life Aberdeen, had “limited exposure” to Russia and Belarus, with less than 0.5 per cent or £2 billion of clients’ money invested across 200 funds in those countries. So far it has not moved to suspend any of those funds.

However, Mr Bird said the company would not be making any new investments in Russia and Belarus.

He said: “In the context of the deeply troubling escalation of this conflict, we have acted to reduce our holdings in Russia and Belarus. We are approaching this in a disciplined manner. We have very limited exposure and we are focused on protecting our clients [interests].

“We have concluded that we will not invest in Russia and Belarus for the foreseeable future.”

Mr Bird said that the company has so far not needed to suspend the funds through which it invests in Russia and Belarus, explaining that it was a “limited component” of those funds and as such there remains “plenty of liquidity”. The company has also not seen a “rush to redeem”, he added.

Mr Bird said: “Obviously, we remain able and capable of having to do it if we had to, but we haven’t had to do it thus far.”

The situation in Ukraine dominated a press conference this morning at which Mr Bird declared his satisfaction with how abrdn had performed following a year of “reset” in 2021. The company reported a rise in revenue for the first time since the merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management in 2017. Fee-based revenue was up 6% to £1.5 billion.

Shares were down more than two per cent in morning trading.