Aberdeen Asset Management gloomy, but it's not universal

Aberdeen Asset Management might be set to continue its cost-cutting drive in the wake of a 67% slump in profits, but elsewhere in the Scottish fund management community jobs look (relatively) safe, and there's even some appetite to hire.

The Scottish fund manager has previously announced plans to cut costs by 50m in this financial year. It says it expects 20m of this to come in the first half of 2009, and the other 30m by the end of the year.

Though it doesn't break out headcount its latest report, it says that costs related to redundancies reached 4.8m in the six months to 31 March 2009.

It announced some job cuts in November, and the acquisition of the institutional investment business from Credit Suisse Asset Management is expected to result in a number of back office redundancies, as it transfers staff to its outsourcing partner, BNP Paribas.

However, it's also thought to be cutting the front office team.

Elsewhere, Scottish Widows Investment Partnership held off pulling the trigger in 2008, and although it's now within the cost-cutting Lloyds Banking Group, large-scale front office redundancies look unlikely despite now having SWIP and Insight in the same organisation.

SWIP's long-only equity management and Insight's liability-driven investment approach are thought to complement each other.

However, there are rumours SWIP's HQ could be shifted to London, and the appointment of Abdallah Nauphal, Insight's managing director, as chief exec of the merged asset management function, speaks volumes about how Lloyds views the two groups.

Lloyds has said, however, that there would be: "integration of fund management activities and removal of duplication in the support roles."

Martin Currie's move to freeze director's pay and cut bonuses actually resulted in a 27% increase in profit in spite of assets under management falling by a third to 9.8bn. Though it axed 19 people last year, it also hired 11, which kept headcount fairly constant at around 260.

It's Baillie Gifford, though, which seems to be bucking the trend and actually taking people on. It recruited Dominic Neary as senior global equities manager in March, as well as Tom Walsh, as UK equities manager.

Richard Fletcher, managing director of headhunters Fletcher Jones, confirms the gloom is beginning to lift.

"After a lull towards the end of last year, our phones are beginning to ring again," he says. "There's a better mood around Edinburgh now than there has been for a little while. Firms are looking for leadership, and a broad range of geographical experience rather than any particular sector expertise."