Aberdeen Plans to Take Advantage of Low M&A Prices

Referring to today’s stock and corporate prices as bargain basement, the chief executive officer of Aberdeen Asset Management of the U.K. said he is interested in purchasing other companies, particularly hedge funds-of-funds and private equity firms, Reuters reports.

Opportunities for acquiring firms are “now pretty strong,” said Martin Gilbert. “Funds-of-hedge funds and funds of private equity are a lot cheaper than they were six months ago, and they are significantly cheaper than they were two years ago.

“Funds-of-hedge-funds, for example, were selling for 15% of assets under management two years ago,” Gilbert said. “They are now down to very, very manageable levels, very attractive levels, and a lot of them are subscale, so I think there is an opportunity to consolidate in that area.”

He added: “There is an amazing number of people talking to each other in the funds business. We certainly feel that we are among the acquirers rather than a business going to be acquired during the market downturn.”