Martin Gilbert is still on the hunt.

Gilbert, CEO of Aberdeen, Scotland-based Aberdeen Asset Management [profile] and soon-to-be co-CEO of Standard Life (also based in Scotland) once Standard's purchase of Aberdeen closes next quarter, tells fundsters that he has big plans for the combined firm's 1 billion pounds ($1.29 billion) in free cash flow.

Martin Gilbert Aberdeen Asset Management Co-Founder and CEO

"We've got a lot of money. We've got the cash flow now to invest," Gilbert says from the main stage at the 2017 ICI GMM in Washington, D.C. "I would like to see us do some add-on, bolt-on acquisitions of capabilities that we don't have [with] the firepower we now have with this financial strength."

Aberdeen historically has a big focus on emerging market investing.

Gilbert spoke alongside David Semaya, executive chairman of Nikko Asset Management, and panel moderator Ted Truscott, CEO of Columbia Threadneedle and chair of the ICI, in a session on "Global Asset Management."

Perhaps Gilbert, who already has a U.S. unit based in Philadelphia, will turn his acquisitive eye to this side of the pond. Last Novemeber, about three months before the Aberdeen-Standard deal was unveiled, Gilbert pointed to the impending Janus-Henderson deal and said "we'd like to do something like that" after he dropped out of the bidding for another multinational asset manager, Pioneer. 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE