The planned £11bn merger between Aberdeen Asset Management PLC (LON:ADN) and Standard Life PLC (LON:SL.) will see the two fund managers cut almost 10% of their combined workforce.
The two Scotland-based companies said the job losses are part of plans to generate £200mln a year in cost savings as they look to create a global industry powerhouse.
Between them, Standard Life and Aberdeen currently employ around 9,000 people. The job cuts are likely take place over a three-year integration period rather than all coming at once.
A prospectus on the tie-up released by Standard Life read: “At this time it is estimated that the integration and restructuring will result in a phased reduction of approximately 800 roles.”
The fund managers pointed out that some of these job losses would come from the natural turnover employees, while they would take other steps to “minimise the number of compulsory redundancies”.
Standard Life Aberdeen
The prospectus also revealed to investors that the combined group would be renamed Standard Life Aberdeen. The new group will be headquartered in Scotland and it will continue to have offices around the world.
Both companies have also agreed on a 16-strong board made up of an equal number of Standard Life and Aberdeen directors.
Standard Life chief executive Keith Skeoch and Aberdeen boss Martin Gilbert will become co-chief executives of the new firm.
READ: Merger is a bold gamble, says City broker
The deal, which will see Aberdeen shareholders own 33.3% of the combined group and Standard Life shareholders owning the remainder, was agreed back in March.
At next month’s general meeting shareholders will be asked to approve the merger, which would create the Britain’s biggest asset manager overseeing around £660bn of assets.
If it gets backing from shareholders, the deal is expected to go through by mid-August.
Shares in Standard Life and Aberdeen edged higher on Wednesday morning to 381.6p and 296.5p respectively.