Standard Life Aberdeen share price: Group and Lloyds to settle row

Standard Life Aberdeen (LON:SLA) and Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) are set to settle their dispute over a £100-billion asset management mandate, Sky News has revealed. The update comes after the asset manager recently won a legal battle against the bailed-out lender which had been looking to terminate the contract early.

Standard Life Aberdeen’s share price has surged in London this morning, having gained 2.02 percent to 307.60p as of 09:53 BST, outperforming the broader UK market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index currently standing 0.73 percent higher at 7,569.43 points. Lloyds share price meanwhile is up by about 0.4 percent, marginally underperforming the Footsie.

SLA and Lloyds to settle row

Sky News reported last night that Lloyds was to pay about £140 million to Standard Life Aberdeen to settle a bitter legal fight over the future of a £100bn asset management mandate. Sources disclosed to the newswire that the outline of a settlement had been drawn up, and would allow  the Edinburgh-based funds house to retain management of roughly £30 billion of‎ assets for three years.

A further review of the stewardship of those funds would then take place in 2022. While the settlement is expected to be finalised later this week, Sky News noted that insiders had cautioned an agreement had yet to be formally reached, and that it remained subject to change.

Analysts on asset manager

The 14 analysts offering 12-month targets for the Standard Life Aberdeen share price for the Financial Times have a median target of 331.29p, with a high estimate of 390.00p and a low estimate of 215.00p. As of July 19, the consensus forecast amongst 17 polled investment analysts covering the blue-chip group has it that the company will outperform the market.

Standard Life Aberdeen is scheduled to update investors on its half-year performance on August 7.