Aberdeen Asset Management plc : Interim Management Statement – 3 Months to 31 December 2011

Highlights

• Assets under management £173.9 billion (30 September 2011: £169.9 billion)
• £7.8 billion of new business won in the quarter (quarter to 30 September 2011: £9.1 billion)
• Net new business for the quarter: -£2.8 billion (quarter to 30 September 2011: -£1.7 billion)

Martin Gilbert, Chief Executive of Aberdeen, commented:

"These figures continue the momentum from Aberdeen's strong full year results. New business flows remain focused on our higher margin pooled funds with outflows largely limited to lower margin strategies. Revenues continue to improve steadily while costs remain under control"

"Our investment performance is robust in the face of ongoing macroeconomic instability. I am confident that Aberdeen's disciplined investment processes and our unerring focus on fundamentals rather than market noise will continue to deliver for our clients over the long term."

Assets under management

Assets under management ("AuM") of £173.9 billion at 31 December 2011 were 2.4% higher than at 30 September 2011. The principal changes in AuM during the quarter are shown in the following table.

			Equities £bn		Fixed Income £bn		Alternative Investment Strategies £bn		Property £bn		Money Market £bn		Total £bn
AuM at 30 September 2010	75.1	40.0	24.8	20.5	9.5	169.9
Net new business flows for the quarter	0.9	(2.1)	(1.1)	-	(0.5)	(2.8)
Purchase of contracts	0.9	-	-	-	-	0.9
Market appreciation, performance & FX	4.2	1.5	1.0	(0.7)	(0.1)	5.9
AuM at 31 December 2011	81.1	39.4	24.7	19.8	8.9	173.9

New business flows

Gross new business wins for the quarter totalled £7.8 billion, compared to £9.1 billion for the previous quarter, to 30 September 2011. Outflows totalled £10.6 billion (quarter to 30 September 2011: £10.8 billion), resulting in net outflows for the quarter of £2.8 billion (30 September 2011: net outflows of £1.7 billion).

The trend we experienced in 2011 has continued, whereby inflows have been attracted into higher margin asset classes whilst outflows have been mainly from lower margin products. The effect on revenue is therefore positive, with the net flows for the quarter adding approximately £10 million of annualised fee income.

Flows into our equity products have remained robust, with investor appetite for emerging market and global equity products continuing, while the major outflows have been principally from our lower margin asset classes such as fixed income and Aberdeen solutions ("AS", formerly known as Alternative Investment Strategies). The fixed income flows have been adversely affected by the loss during the quarter of one large, lower margin global mandate. However, we continue to see encouraging investor appetite for our higher margin Asian and emerging market debt capabilities.

Our property team continues to see considerable interest from investors and the marketing of our third Asian fund is progressing well. Our AS business is working with clients to ensure our products remain appropriate for clients' evolving asset allocation requirements. A major element of the net outflows in the quarter arose from the withdrawal of assets from a very low margin passive multi manager fund.

An analysis of the new business figures for the quarter to 31 December 2011 is provided at the end of this statement.

We have supplemented the revenue effects of these flows with the purchase, in mid-December, of the management contracts for two US closed end funds which invest in Asian equities. These contracts bring annual revenues of approximately £5 million and add further scale to our US and Canadian closed end business which now accounts for £3.7 billion of our total listed closed end fund AuM of £8.0 billion.

Investment performance

Our equity teams have continued to deliver consistent outperformance against their respective benchmarks, thus maintaining our excellent track record over both short-term and long-term periods. In fixed income, all of our major strategies are now ahead of their three-year benchmarks; over a oneyear period, performance in the traditional strategies is more mixed but performance is robust in our leading local currency Asian and emerging market debt products. Broadly, our property mandates are meeting clients' objectives. Within solutions our multi-asset products have performed well over all key time periods, while our core fund of hedge funds vehicles also continue to perform well.

Outlook

The first quarter of our new financial year has seen continued market volatility and we believe it is prudent to anticipate uncertainty to remain a key feature in the months ahead. However, we believe that our strength across a diversified range of specialist investment strategies, allied to our global asset gathering capability, leaves us well positioned to continue the organic growth of our revenue streams.

For further information, please contact:

Aberdeen Asset Management PLC

Martin Gilbert + 44 (0) 20 7463 6000

Bill Rattray + 44 (0) 20 7463 6000

Maitland