The Power

of Investment

Annual report and accounts 2021

abrdn.com

When our clients invest with

abrdn, they invest in more than

you think.

Our focus on the future helps to

create more progress, insights

and opportunities to change

things for the better.

This is the power of investing

with abrdn.

This annual report and accounts 2021 for abrdn plc, and the strategic report and financial highlights 2021 are

published on our website at www.abrdn.com/annualreport

Access to the website is available outside the UK, where comparable information may be different.

Standard Life Aberdeen plc was renamed abrdn plc on 2 July 2021.

Certain measures such as fee based revenue, cost/income ratio, adjusted operating profit, adjusted

profit before tax and adjusted capital generation are not defined under International Financial

Reporting Standards (IFRS) and are therefore termed alternative performance measures (APMs).

APMs should be read together with the Group’s IFRS consolidated income statement, IFRS consolidated

statement of financial position and IFRS consolidated statement of cash flows, which are presented in the

Group financial statements section of this report. Further details on APMs are included in Supplementary

information.

See Supplementary information for details on AUMA, net flows and the investment performance calculation.

Net flows in the Highlights page excludes liquidity flows as they are volatile and lower margin. It also excludes

Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) tranche withdrawals relating to the settlement of arbitration with LBG.

All figures are shown on a continuing operations basis unless otherwise stated.

APM

Highlights

Adjusted operating

profit

£323m

2020: £219m

IFRS profit before tax

£1,115m

2020: £838m

Full year dividend per share

14.6p

2020: 14.6p

Investment performance

(% of AUM above benchmark

over three years)

67%

2020: 66%

Net flows

(Excl. liquidity and LBG )

£3.2bn

outflow

2020: £12.3bn

outflow

Dow Jones Sustainability

Indices (DJSI) ranking

Top 3%

of companies in our sector

2020: Top 2%

Contents

1. Strategic report

About our business 2

Chairman’s statement 10

Chief Executive Officer’s review 13

Our strategic priorities 16

Our business model 18

Our growth vectors 20

Corporate investments 29

Sustainability 30

Key performance indicators 46

Chief Financial Officer’s overview 48

Risk management 61

Governance

2. Board of Directors 68

3. Corporate governance statement 72

3.1 Audit Committee report 84

3.2 Risk and Capital Committee report 93

3.3 Nomination and Governance

Committee report

3.4 Directors’ remuneration report 100

4. Directors’ report 117

5. Statement of Directors’ responsibilities 123

Financial information

6. Independent audit report 126

7. Group financial statements 136

8. Company financial statements 252

9. Supplementary information 264

Other information

10. Glossary 280

11. Shareholder information 283

12. Forward-looking statements 284

13. Contact us IBC

This symbol indicates further information

is available within this document or on our corporate

website.

Download this report from:

www.abrdn.com/annualreport

APM

1abrdn.comAnnual report 2021

STRATEGIC REPORT

About our business

Our purpose

Enabling our clients

to be better investors

Technology and

insight help empower

clients to make better

decisions

Powerful partnerships

help to enhance

the expertise that

we offer

Enabling clients to

invest responsibly helps

us to build a better

world

Our connected global team

Clients worldwide trust us to find future-fit

investment opportunities globally to deliver

the outcomes they want.

We manage and

administer £542 billion

of assets for clients

We have around

5,000 employees

globally

We have 800

investment

professionals in over

30 locations

2 abrdn.com Annual report 2021

Our business

Our business is structured around three vectors,

focused on the constantly changing needs of our

clients.

Investments

Adviser

Personal

Across markets

globally, we build

investment solutions to

enable clients to create

more opportunities for

their futures.

Our platform

technology and tools

help UK wealth

managers and financial

advisers create more

opportunities for their

clients and their

businesses.

Our personal wealth

business offers tailored

services to help

individuals in the UK

create financially

secure futures in a way

that works for them.

Our investments solutions are built

on the strength of our insight,

generated from wide-ranging

research, worldwide investment

expertise and local market

knowledge. Our teams collaborate

across regions, asset classes and

specialisms, connecting diverse

perspectives, working with clients to

identify investment opportunities

that suit their needs.

We provide technology, expertise

and support to make it easy for our

clients to run their business and

deliver the outcomes their clients

want. We offer content and

experiences that can be

personalised to suit every type of

business and client, giving advisers

powerful data and insight to make

better decisions.

We integrate a full range of services

from high-quality financial planning

and discretionary investment

management capabilities, through

to hybrid advice and digital investing

tools. Our proposed acquisition of

interactive investor transforms and

broadens these capabilities.

Fee based revenue

£1,231m

Fee based revenue

£178m

Fee based revenue

£92m

£464bn AUM

£76bn AUA

£14bn AUMA