The bidding for Pioneer Investments [profile] has gotten too rich for Marty Gilbert and his team.

Marty Gilbert Aberdeen Asset Management Co-Founder and CEO

Gilbert's Aberdeen Asset Management [profile] has dropped out of the auction for UniCredit's Pioneer, Bloomberg and the Evening Standard report. Reuters also covered the news. Gilbert tells Bloomberg that the Pioneer price tag is now 3.5 billion euros (about $3.7 billion).

For the latest updates, check out MFWire's living timeline on the Pioneer auction.

"We were through to the second round but we withdrew," Gilbert tells Bloomberg. "We couldn't quite afford the 3.5 billion that it's going to go for. I wish we could find something, but there's nothing at the moment."

"I think we felt we weren't going to win so it was better to withdraw graciously," Gilbert tells Reuters.

Perhaps Aberdeen will make a different acquisition instead. The Standard notes that Aberdeen "has spent the past three years digesting" its Scottish Widows acquisition. Gilbert sounds open to other M&A.

"If the right opportunity came up, we'd look at it but we're not looking at anything else at the moment," Gilbert tells the Standard. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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