Martin Gilbert, Co-founder & former CEO of Aberdeen Asset Management, "Recurring revenue and the quality of people", Investing Matters Podcast, Episode 50

Investing Matters

Are you interested in learning our one man’s passion for investing changed the footprint of a city and the history of the Investment industry?

With that in mind, welcome to the 50th episode of the Investing Matters series with me Peter Higgins @conkers3 on Twitter. As a global Investing Matters audience, you are all in for an absolute treat because this interview is with one of the true Scottish, UK and global heavyweights of the independent asset management industry. None other than the multiple award-winning Martin Gilbert FRSE, co-founder and former CEO of Aberdeen Asset Manager and the Executive Chairman of AssetCo Plc.

Martin Gilbert, the humble and proud Chartered Accountant, was educated at Robert Gordon's College in Aberdeen, he then attended the same Law School as Alistair Darling (the former Chancellor of the Exchequer) at the University of Aberdeen, where is gained his law degree and his master’s degree in accountancy. After university, he joined Deloitte and qualified as a chartered accountant.

In 1982, he joined the investment department of local law firm Brander & Cruikshank, and a year or so later, with two others undertook a management buyout of its investment department. The new entity was called Aberdeen Fund Managers and had initial share capital of just £10,000 with £70m of assets under management, because as Martin now describes it in the 1980’s asset managers were a “small cottage industry”

Martin co-founded Aberdeen Fund Managers / Aberdeen Asset Management PLC in 1983 and was Chief Executive Officer from 1991 to 2017 (making him one of the longest serving CEO’s at the time). During that period Aberdeen Asset Management PLC grew, through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisition, to become one of the world’s leading independent asset managers with £308 billion of AUM.

In 2017 Aberdeen Asset Management PLC merged with Standard Life plc, to become Standard Life Aberdeen plc. On merging, Standard Life Aberdeen plc was the biggest UK-based asset management company and the second biggest in Europe. Martin was co-chief executive officer and subsequently vice chairman until he retired from Standard Life Aberdeen plc in September 2020. Martin is chairman of Revolut Ltd and Toscafund, deputy chairman of River and Mercantile Group PLC and senior independent director of Glencore plc, Chair of Scottish Golf, alongside several other directorships.

Please listen now to learn how Martin Gilbert FRSE, the shrewd dealer maker grew Aberdeen Fund Managers into the global investment firm that we knew as Aberdeen Asset Management. Martin shares lessons learnt from encountering significant lows, including his now dislike of geared investing products/ structures and his huge successes as a CEO and leader. He explains how he identifies transformational deals, the very best fund Managers and how he retains them. Why recurring revenues are vital, the successful straits required in order to achieve long-term investing success as a CEO, fund manager and an investor. Why ESG is important, being Chairman of The Net Zero Technology Centre and its role in the energy industry. His current favourite investing markets, plus why he sees huge value in UK mid cap and even more value in the UK small cap.

Martin shares an overview of Assetco Plc, a holding company for a group of wealth and asset management companies, for which he has a goal of growing into a FTSE 250 listed company. Given what Martin achieved with Aberdeen Asset Management and with the wisdom given to him by none other than Sir Alex Ferguson, I’d say that with the foundations already laid across, Active Equities, Infrastructure Asset Management, Exchange Traded Funds and Digital Platform that there is every possibility that Assetco goes onto achieve significant success.

We hope you enjoy this podcast, and we look forward to hearing your feedback.

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