8 May 2018 – update on Lloyds Banking Group
The group has issued an update on the termination of its investment management contract with Lloyds Banking Group as it does not believe that the latter has the right to terminate the agreement. Readers may recall that Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) has been managing assets of over £100bn for Lloyds Banking Group and Scottish Widows. Since the merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management last summer, Lloyds has been reviewing its investment management arrangements and has concluded that SLA is in fact a major competitor hence its decision in February to move the assets away. The annual revenues generated by this business amount to some £129m and represent around 4.4% of SLA’s annual revenue. The share price of SLA fell sharply in February after the termination of the agreement was announced and talks are now under way to find a resolution to this. Although the outcome of these is clearly uncertain the share price of SLA reflects this and we believe there is therefore upside potential. BUY.