Numis: Aberdeen may make £900m Russell IM bid

Aberdeen Asset Management may be among the bidders for Russell Investment Management, the $260bn asset manager put on the block by London Stock Exchange Group, according to analysts at Numis.

In a note to clients, Numis said this morning that its view is "speculative", but added investors in FTSE 100-listed Aberdeen "should be aware this deal is a possibility". Numis said Aberdeen could be among those to have taken a look at US-based Russell IM, amid press reports of interest at a price of $1.4bn (£913m), and suggested any deal may be funded by a rights issue. It bases this on its intepretation of Aberdeen's Q1 conference call earlier this week, in which the company said it would "come to shareholders" if it saw an acquisition opportunity. That suggests a deal of over 1...