Aberdeen offloads Credit Suisse funds to Premier

By Joel Dimmock

LONDON (Reuters) - Aberdeen Asset Management said on Monday it had agreed to sell former Credit Suisse funds with 858 million pounds in assets to Premier Asset Management.

The deal will see fund manager Bill Mott return to the helm of the income funds he managed for Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) in the 1990s as Premier will outsource management to Mott's firm PSigma.

Privately-held Premier will pay 23 million pounds for 10 UK OIEC (Open-Ended Investment Company) funds housed at present with Aberdeen Unit Trust Managers and divided between the Aberdeen Income Funds and Aberdeen Growth Funds umbrellas.

They were renamed as part of Aberdeen's acquisition of Credit Suisse's international funds business, completed earlier this month.

"Given the scale and complexity of the acquisition, it was inevitable that certain parts of the business would be less suited to integration into the Aberdeen business model," Aberdeen said in a statement.

The Credit Suisse income and growth team led by Graham Ashby is now likely to leave the combined firm, sources close to the company said. Ashby has been linked with a move to the asset management division of insurer Liverpool Victoria, and a source with knowledge of the situation said such a move was possible.

Liverpool Victoria denied any deal to bring Ashby on board had been concluded.

An Aberdeen (ADN.L) spokesman said the company was not planning to sell any more funds as a result of the Credit Suisse deal.