Aberdeen Asset Management buys FLAG Capital

The deal will double the size of Aberdeen's private equity business to about $15 billion in assets under management (AUM). It will also bring the firm's number of investment professionals to 50. 

FLAG - which focuses on venture capital, small- to mid-cap private equity, and real assets in the US, as well as private equity in Asia - managed assets of about $6.3 billion as of December. Its assets stood at $4.5 billion prior to the acquisition of Squadron, a deal which helped broaden its product offering in Asia.

The business will now be fully integrated into Aberdeen's current private markets capability and will give the firm a total AUM of $21.3 billion following completion of the transaction. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2015.

In a statement, Aberdeen said the acquisition was in line with its strategy to strengthen and grow its global alternatives platform and solutions provision via multi-manager coverage across hedge funds, property, private equity, and infrastructure, among other alternative assets.

"FLAG meets this objective in two ways," said Martin Gilbert, chief executive of Aberdeen. "Initially, it strengthens further our private market capability by bringing additional Asian expertise and new US resource. This will also benefit our overall pan-alternatives platform. Secondly, FLAG deepens and expands our US client base, which is a key growth market for Aberdeen."

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• Fund-of-funds
• North America
• Europe
• M&A
• FLAG Capital
• Fund-of-funds