When the previous CEO of Aberdeen renamed the group abrdn, the opprobrium was instant and unequivocal; part merriment, part derision. The media and city analysts joked the company was “disemvowelled” and had “irritable vowel syndrome”, leading to the group’s CIO bemoaning the press for “corporate bullying”. The share price and operational performance have been downhill ever since. It was refreshing, then, to see the venerable asset manager go back to its roots recently by renaming itself, more prosaically, as ‘aberdeen group plc’, albeit retaining the lower case ‘a’ sadly.
Company name changes are a fascinating event, to us at least, and can be revealing both in their timing, choice of name, and underlying reasons for the change. All too often on AIM a name change is an effort to try and distance a company from the sins of its past. Alas, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.
They do, though, provide a rare and highly visible insight into management’s decision-making ability. Take the ill-fated abrdn rebrand, for example. Here, the board signed off on something they should have anticipated would cause confusion, not least phonetically, while also likely alienating clients.
Such a faux pas raised questions over their judgement and ability to properly assess trade-offs, something inherent in any business.
One can overstate the change back, but the market took the news very well with a tangible touch point that the new management are taking a much more pragmatic, common-sense approach to running the business.
We wonder if Hrvy, singer and TV host (apparently), will follow suit and similarly re-emvowel…
