25 June 2016 – by Shekha Vyas
Edinburgh’s office pipelineAberdeen Asset Management is on the hunt for a new 80,000 sq ft Edinburgh headquarters.
The fund manager has been streamlining its UK portfolio and in the past six months has disposed of £1.7bn of assets, including 61 Southwark Street, SE1, and 1 Welbeck Street, W1.
It fell out of the FTSE 100 index of the UK’s largest companies this year and posted a fall in profits from £185.4m to £98.8m in the six months to the end of March 2016.
Aberdeen currently occupies almost 90,000 sq ft in Edinburgh in 40 Princes Street and 60 Morrison Street.
The firm has appointed Ryden to explore options for a move. It has an upcoming lease expiry on Princes Street in 2018 and the lease on Morrison Street expires in 2021.
Aberdeen said: “We are looking at options, given that lease renewals and break clauses are coming up in a few years’ time. We may not even move.”
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The company is most likely to take space at one of three developments in the city centre, as supply for grade-A office space stands at just 100,000 sq ft.
Tiger Development’s Haymarket will deliver 340,000 sq ft, Hermes and Parlison Properties’ Capital Square will provide 122,600 sq ft, and Artisan’s New Waverley 160,000 sq ft over the next three years.
Aberdeen employs around 800 staff in Edinburgh, where its global equity, structured products and multi-asset teams are based. Its investment trust, secretarial, compliance, digital marketing and governance teams also work in the city.
