The coming together of two of European asset management’s largest groups would result in a veritable colossus.

Their combined £660 billion ($811 billion) in assets would move them into the big leagues and put them just outside the world’s top 20 in assets under management.

Across both groups there are a total of 128 fund managers tracked by Citywire, active in 91 investment sectors. The combined experience of those managers is just shy of a thousand years (980 years, 10 months).

The talent pool

Looking at their Citywire Ratings it is actually Aberdeen, who in spite of their troubles, are bringing the largest breadth and depth to marriage. Not only in terms of pure ratings, but also in the variety of sectors in which they are active and successful.

Citywire Fund Manager Ratings

With a combined total of 22 ratings it would place them 27^th globally for three year risk-adjusted returns until the end of January this year.Citywire Fund Manager Ratings look at the individual risk-adjusted returns of every manager tracked globally over the past three years and are updated monthly.

The highest rated fund managers are all from Aberdeen, with the top manager AAA-rated Robert Penaloza. However, Penaloza only runs retail money in Australia. Making him niche and inaccessible to most.

Manager	Rating	Group	Citywire Sector	Contributing Funds
Robert Penaloza	AAA	Aberdeen	Equities - Australia	Aberdeen Australian Equities
			Equities - Australia Small & Medium Companies	Aberdeen Australian Small Companies
			Equities - Australia	Aberdeen Ex-20 Australian Equities
Joseph McFadden	AA	Aberdeen	Equities - US Small & Medium Companies	Aberdeen US Small Cap Equity Fund
Adrian Lim	AA	Aberdeen	Equities - Asia Pacific Excluding Japan	Aberdeen Asia-Pacific (Ex-Japan) Equity Fund
David Cumming	A	SLI	Equities - UK (All Companies)	Standard Life Inv UK Equity Recovery
Douglas Burtnick	A	Aberdeen	Equities - US	Aberdeen US Multi-Cap Equity Fund
			Equities - US Small & Medium Companies	Aberdeen US Small Cap Equity Fund
Jason Kotik	A	Aberdeen	Equities - US	Aberdeen US Multi-Cap Equity Fund
			Equities - US Small & Medium Companies	Aberdeen US Small Cap Equity Fund
Ralph Bassett	A	Aberdeen	Equities - US	Aberdeen American Opportunities
			Equities - US	Aberdeen Global - North American Equity
			Equities - US Small & Medium Companies	Aberdeen Global - North American SmCos
			Equities - US	Aberdeen North American Equity
			Equities - US	Aberdeen US Multi-Cap Equity Fund
			Equities - US Small & Medium Companies	Aberdeen US Small Cap Equity Fund
Samantha Lamb	A	SLI	Bonds - Emerging Markets Global Corporates	SLI Glo SICAV Emerging Market Corporate Bd
Wolfgang Kuhn	+	Aberdeen	Bonds - Euro Corporates	Aberdeen Global II - Euro Corporate Bond
Fiona Gillespie	+	Aberdeen	Mixed Assets - Aggressive GBP	Aberdeen Multi-Asset
Lyndon Gill	+	Aberdeen	Equities - UK Equity Income	SW Multi-Manager UK Equity Income
Chern-Yeh Kwok	+	Aberdeen	Equities - Japan	Aberdeen Global - Japanese Equity
			Equities - Japanese Small & Medium Companies	Aberdeen Global - Japanese Smaller Comp
Harry Nimmo	+	SLI	Equities - UK Smaller Companies	Standard Life Inv UK Smaller Companies
Kieran Curtis	+	SLI	Bonds - Emerging Markets Global Local Currency	SLI Glo SICAV EM Local Curr Debt
			Bonds - Emerging Markets Global Corporates	SLI Glo SICAV Emerging Market Corporate Bd
Matthew Davies	+	Aberdeen	Mixed Assets - Flexible GBP	Aberdeen Capital
Michael Turner	+	Aberdeen	Mixed Assets - Balanced GBP	Aberdeen Diversified Income
			Mixed Assets - Aggressive GBP	Aberdeen Multi-Asset

Next on the list is the highly impressive AA-rated Joseph McFadden who co-manages the Aberdeen US Smaller Companies fund with Ralph Bassett.

This is unquestionably one of the best US smaller companies portfolios in the world. Over the past five years the duo rank 8/604 managers globally on a risk-adjusted basis, which puts them in the 98^th percentile in this highly competitive sector.

Then we get to AA-rated Asian equity specialist Adrian Lim. While Aberdeen’s veteran fund manager Hugh Young has been through a torrid run of performance over the past five years in the same field, Lim has consistently stayed ahead of the benchmark.

Following Lim is Standard Life Investments (SLI) top rated fund manager, A-rated David Cumming. As manager of the group’s UK Equity Recovery fund he has consistently outperformed the benchmark and only failed to receive a monthly rating three times since September 2013.

Veterans' day

Hugh Young is the longest serving manager across either group with nearly 30 years as named fund manager in Asian equities.

He is the individual with the most experience in active in this sector, following last week’s announcement that Stewart Investor’s Angus Tulloch is set to retire.

While recent performance hasn’t been great, Young more than anyone is responsible for making Aberdeen what is today.

Following him are a clutch of SLI managers in UK centric equity sectors. Susan Tarry in Europe excluding UK, Karen McKellar in UK all companies and the renowned Harry Nimmo in UK smaller companies. Rounding out the top 10 in the longevity stakes are Aberdeen’s mixed asset manager Simon Wood and global emerging market stalwart Devan Kaloo. 

Greater than a sum of its parts

Next up we take a look at the combined groups Citywire Group Ratings. These look at performance of every manager in a sector over a seven year period and reward consistency and longevity.

Group Ratings Breakdown
Fixed Income
Sector	Rating	Group
Emerging Markets Global Hard Currency	Silver	SLI
Europe High Yield	Bronze	Aberdeen
Equities
Sector	Rating	Group
Asia Pacific Excluding Japan	Silver	SLI
Asia Pacific Including Japan	Bronze	Aberdeen
China	Gold	SLI
Emerging Markets Europe	Silver	Aberdeen
Global	Silver	SLI
Global Emerging Markets	Gold	Aberdeen
Global Emerging Markets Smaller Companies	Bronze	Aberdeen
India	Bronze	Aberdeen
Japanese Small & Medium Companies	Bronze	Aberdeen
Latin America	Silver	Aberdeen
Natural Resources	Bronze	Aberdeen
UK Equity Income	Bronze	SLI
US Small & Medium Companies	Gold	Aberdeen
Mixed Assets
Sector	Rating	Group
Absolute Return GBP	Bronze	Aberdeen
Balanced GBP	Bronze	SLI
Conservative GBP	Bronze	SLI

Again Aberdeen are bring the lion’s share to equation with a greater number of group ratings. Though neither group currently has a platinum rating awarded to the top 5% of groups in each sector.

At an individual sector level the bias towards equity markets is clear with just two ratings awarded for fixed income; for performance in hard currency emerging market debt and European high yield

In equity markets it is perhaps surprising to see SLI awarded a rating for Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, which has for so long been Aberdeen’s bread and butter.

This has been achieved in the main by William Malcolm manager of the Standard Life Inv Asian Pacific Growth and Standard Life Inv Pacific Basin funds and who ranks 48/137 managers globally for his risk-adjusted returns over the past five years.

The standout ratings are the Golds received in China by SLI and in Global Emerging Markets and US Smaller Companies by Aberdeen.