Infra mingled with PE as SL and Aberdeen merge

Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management have unveiled a post-merger investment leadership team that will see infrastructure and private equity gathered under a single umbrella.

The proposed investment management committee, comprising 12 members, includes Peter McKellar, who is to assume the role of global head of private and infrastructure equity. McKellar is currently head of SL Capital, the private markets arm of Standard Life.

Asked whether respective heads for infrastructure and private equity would also be named in due course, a spokeswoman for Standard Life told Infrastructure Investor that it was too early to say. “We are still in the initial integration planning phase of the merger and will not be in a position to confirm further changes, appointments or roles until completion.”

The news comes just days after shareholders in both companies voted overwhelmingly in favour of a £3.8 billion ($4.8 billion; €4.3 billion) merger, announced in March, that will create an investment behemoth with around 9,000 employees and £660 billion under management.

The 12-strong investment management committee proposed for the new entity also includes two co-heads for real estate, namely David Paine (from Standard Life) and Pertti Vanhanen (from Aberdeen).

It remains unclear whether the two asset managers’ infrastructure franchises will continue to operate independently, under separate names, or whether they will be combined to form a single team.

Last week, SL Capital sealed its third rolling stock deal together with Rock Infrastructure, and their largest instance of collaboration to date, by forming a consortium with GLIL Infrastructure that committed £1 billion for the construction of 750 new trains for lines servicing Waterloo Station.