Aberdeen Asset Management has completed its acquisition of Arden Asset Management (Arden), a provider of hedge fund solutions with offices in New York and London, on 31 December, 2015.
This acquisition grows Aberdeen's global alternatives platform, which encompasses multi-manager research, selection and portfolio management for hedge-fund strategies, private equity and debt, property and other real asset investments, along with direct investments in infrastructure projects. Aberdeen can now offer its clients access and exposure to a universe of high-quality alternative investments, covering liquid strategies, private markets and real assets.
The combined hedge fund solutions team located in London and New York specializes in creating and managing multi-manager portfolios with expertise in hedge fund manager research, selection, monitoring/oversight and portfolio management. With $10.3 billion in assets under management, the team provides commingled funds, customised portfolios, mutual funds and advisory services to a global, blue-chip client base of individual and institutional investors.
Aberdeen's alternatives division, under Global Head of Alternatives Andrew McCaffery (pictured), has more than $21 billion of assets under management as of September 30, 2015. This coupled with Arden will bring the group's alternatives assets to more than $31 billion.
Effective with the closing of the transaction, Aberdeen became the investment adviser to the Arden Alternative Strategies Fund and Arden Alternative Strategies II (the "Arden Funds") pursuant to an interim advisory agreement approved by the Arden Funds' shareholders at a meeting on November 25, 2015. It is anticipated that in the first quarter of 2016, the Arden Funds will be reorganized into newly created series of Aberdeen Funds, Aberdeen Multi-Manager Alternative Strategies Fund and Aberdeen Multi-Manager Alternative Strategies Fund II, using investment strategies that are substantially similar to those of the Arden Funds. The fund reorganisations were also approved by the Arden Funds' shareholders at the shareholder meeting.
Andrew McCaffery (pictured), Global Head of Alternatives at Aberdeen Asset Management, says: "We are very pleased to have closed on the acquisition of Arden Asset Management LLC. Our excitement about the potential of the combined, integrated platform continues to grow, enhanced by the very encouraging feedback we have received from clients since signing the agreement. We continue to focus upon the opportunity presented by investors' increasing demand for high-quality research, combined with effective portfolio construction and management, in an effort to generate sustainable returns for their hedge fund portfolios. The development of liquid-alternative portfolios and products, built off our broader hedge fund solutions platform, is an area that we are increasingly confident will grow in 2016 and beyond."
