Aberdeen Asset Management (AAM) confirmed that it is no longer in talks to sell its property arm to British Land (BL).
The fund manager had been in detailed discussions with the quoted company headed by John Ritblat for several months over the sale of Aberdeen Property Investors (API).
AAM said in a statement to the stock market this morning: “Following an exhaustive process in which Aberdeen looked at a number of options for API, we now intend to retain the business as part of its wider fund management operations.”
Negotiations ended after the failure to reach agreement on the valuation of the business.
BL is understood to have offered £45m for the business, considerably lower that the £125m AAM had been hoping to raise from a sale.
The fund manager is seeking to raise money to reduce its £250m of debt, now consolidated under Bank of Scotland.
The operation is the largest specialist property fund manager in the UK, with assets worth some £6bn in Britain, continental Europe and the Nordic region.
Martin Gilbert, Aberdeen’s chief executive said: “We are disappointed that the discussions with British Land have terminated but API is an excellent business and both we and the API management team believe that more value can be provided to Aberdeen shareholders by retaining the business rather than selling it at a depressed valuation.”
