Team size: 76 globally

Can you provide us with information on your most significant recent transactions?

Over the past 18 months, we’ve been very active in mergers and acquisitions. In May 2022, abrdn acquired interactive investor, the UK’s second largest investment platform, for £1.5bn – amongst the biggest UK financial services deals of 2021-22.

We also advised on acquiring Tritax, a logistics fund manager, and Finimize, a financial insight app, monetising over £1bn of shareholdings in Phoenix group and HDFC. Additionally, we counselled in selling Parmenion and our Nordics estate business, in investing in Archax, a digital asset platform, and in Titan Bay, a global PE platform, as well as creating a defined benefit pensions master trust in a strategic alliance with XPS Pensions.

What technological advancements has your company focused more on?

Thoughtfully embedding technology into our global operating model is central to our strategy, enhancing efficiency and risk management while giving our people bandwidth to focus on complex, strategic work. On the subject, I would highlight our proprietary digital hub which enables self-service through automation across a range of contracts plus significant FAQ functionality, our iManage knowledge-sharing platform and our electronic signing across the business.

As AI and machine learning technologies develop, we see greater opportunity for commoditised legal and governance work to be streamlined. We regularly scan for new capabilities including exploring fund prospectus automation.

How would you describe your business partners’ recognition of your company and its work?

We enjoy an excellent reputation across our business. Our people are seen as astute and proactive, giving risk-based advice with an attention to detail to deliver organic and inorganic business strategy.

Our culture focuses on continuous learning. We track industry and competitive trends, not just legal and regulatory developments. We educate ourselves on business, legal and regulatory issues in emerging areas such as decentralised finance and the broad sustainability spectrum including investments in climate transition and adaptation technologies.

Consequently, we can deliver cutting-edge work including our new sustainability fund suite, a vehicle that tracks a hedge fund index, a Finimize brand inspired NFT, digital onboarding and retirement advice technology and a market-leading risk mitigation fund.

Given the shocks we have seen in the past few years, do you now spend more time preparing for the unforeseen?

Operating in global asset management and UK wealth and fintech, we are in a continuously changing landscape impacted by industry disruption, geopolitics, macroeconomics, global markets, environmental, cyber issues and the recent pandemic.

We orient our team to embrace change and ambiguity. Our talent development ethos prizes technical excellence, but also industry awareness, resilience and adaptability. We stress the need for continuous learning, such as the bespoke modules we co-created with Clifford Chance for use across our company on decentralised finance topics including blockchain, central bank digital currencies, smart contracts and tokenisation. We believe that cultivating this environment prepares our people for unpredictability and enables them to plan proactively for change.