Investment manager Abrdn has officially rebranded to aberdeen group plc, formally changing its name yesterday (Wednesday) and moving to an all lower case name including vowels.
The investment manager shared plans to make changes to its widely-mocked 2021 rebrand earlier this month in a stock market statement.
Jason Windsor, chief executive, said: “We are announcing today that we will change the company's name to Aberdeen group plc.
“We do not intend to make any changes to our subsidiary legal entity names or the names of our underlying funds (including the CUSIPs or ISINs) at this time, and our LSE ticker will remain ABDN.
“We will now start to use "Aberdeen" as the principal trading identity for our investments and adviser businesses.”
The investment manager’s rebrand to Abrdn in 2021 was much-disliked by some, with industry commentators joking the firm had lost its vowels, was “dis-emvowelled” and had “irritable vowel syndrome”.
Last year Peter Branner, chief investment officer at Aberdeen, hit out at the criticism, saying: “I understand that corporate bullying to some extent is part of the game with the press, even though it’s a little childish to keep hammering the missing vowels in our name.
“Would you do that with an individual? How would you look at a person who makes fun of your name day in, day out?”
The firm had paid marketing agency Wolff Olins to come up with its new identity.
The company, which had been formed by a £3.8bn merger in 2017, launched the rebrand four years later after selling its Standard Life brand name to Phoenix Group, as it exited the UK and European life insurance market.
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