Aberdeen Group half-year results 2026: profit rises 21% as interactive investor delivers record inflows

Aberdeen Group PLC has reported a solid first half, with higher revenue, lower operating costs and strong growth from interactive investor lifting adjusted operating profit by 21%.

The asset manager and investment platform operator also reaffirmed its full-year targets. However, the results were not spotless. Group net outflows worsened, Adviser remains under pressure and the Investments division is still losing assets despite better fund performance.

Here is what shareholders need to know from the original company announcement.

Aberdeen's half-year results at a glance

Financial measure	H1 2026	H1 2025	Change
Net operating revenue	£643 million	£628 million	2%
Adjusted operating expenses	£492 million	£503 million	2% lower
Adjusted operating profit	£151 million	£125 million	21%
IFRS profit before tax	£276 million	£271 million	2%
Adjusted diluted earnings per share	8.2p	7.5p	0.7p
Net capital generation	£163 million	£111 million	47%
Interim dividend per share	7.3p	7.3p	Unchanged
Assets under management and administration	£579.4 billion	£556.0 billion at FY 2025	4%

Adjusted operating profit is the company's preferred measure of underlying profitability, removing certain restructuring, acquisition and investment valuation items.

The 21% profit increase was driven by 2% revenue growth and a 2% reduction in adjusted operating expenses. That combination is encouraging because Aberdeen did not rely entirely on rising markets to improve earnings.

Net capital generation, which measures how profits contribute to regulatory capital, increased by 47% to £163 million. This benefited from higher profit, lower restructuring and transaction costs, and the use of part of the defined benefit pension surplus to fund employee pension benefits.

IFRS profit before tax was less impressive, rising just 2% to £276 million. It included a £100 million fair-value gain on Aberdeen's 10% stake in Standard Life plc, down from a £155 million gain in the comparative period.

Interactive investor remains the growth engine

The clearest positive was another strong performance from interactive investor, Aberdeen's direct-to-consumer investment platform.

Customer numbers increased by 14% to 525,000, while the number of customers holding a self-invested personal pension, or SIPP, rose 35% to approximately 125,000.

Assets under management and administration reached £107.7 billion, helped by record net inflows of £6.8 billion. This was up from £4.0 billion in the detailed comparative figures.

Trading activity was also strong. Daily average retail trades increased by 42% to 35,700, helping trading revenue rise 9% to £49 million despite lower foreign exchange charges introduced to make the platform more competitive.

Treasury income increased by 33% to £100 million, supported by higher customer cash balances and an average cash margin of 234 basis points. One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

Adjusted operating profit reached £84 million. Excluding the sold financial planning business, the company described growth as 18%.

Costs increased as Aberdeen invested in technology, brand awareness and capacity. Even so, the cost-to-assets ratio improved to 18 basis points, indicating that the platform is gaining operating leverage as it grows.

For shareholders, interactive investor is increasingly important. Its strong inflows and expanding customer base are helping to counterbalance weaker flows elsewhere in the group.

Adviser has better service but worse flows

The Adviser division delivered broadly stable adjusted operating profit of £41 million, compared with £42 million a year earlier.

Assets on the platform rose to £84.8 billion, largely because of positive market movements. The underlying flow picture was weaker, with net outflows increasing to £1.3 billion from £0.9 billion.

Gross inflows grew by 9%, but this was more than offset by higher redemptions. In other words, Aberdeen is attracting more new money, but existing customers and advisers are withdrawing assets at a faster rate.

There are signs of operational progress. The division's Net Promoter Score, a measure of customer willingness to recommend the service, improved by eight points to +53. Aberdeen also reported a 90% improvement in onboarding times for its Wrap platform.

The challenge is converting these service improvements into sustainable net inflows. New Adviser chief executive Rich Denning has been tasked with doing exactly that, but Aberdeen expects second-half profitability to remain broadly flat.

Investments improves profit despite heavy outflows

Adjusted operating profit in Investments rose 9% to £38 million, even though revenue fell 2% to £363 million.

The improvement came mainly from cost control. Adjusted operating expenses fell 3% to £325 million as transformation savings and efficiency measures offset inflation and investment in growth.

Investment performance strengthened, with 86% of measured assets outperforming over three years, up from 80% at the end of 2025 and comfortably ahead of Aberdeen's 70% target.

However, flows remain the obvious weakness. Investments recorded net outflows of £6.4 billion excluding liquidity, including around £4 billion of previously flagged, lower-margin equity withdrawals.

There were brighter spots. Real Assets attracted £1.4 billion of net inflows, while Insurance Partner outflows improved to £0.8 billion from £4.5 billion. A £1 billion credit mandate that had been expected in the second quarter funded in early July, so it was not included in the half-year flows.

Better investment performance should help future sales, but fund performance and client flows do not always move together immediately. Aberdeen still needs to prove that its improved results can translate into consistent asset gathering.

Dividend coverage and capital strength improve

The interim dividend was maintained at 7.3p per share, with an expected total cost of £131 million.

Dividend coverage improved to 1.39 times using adjusted capital generation and 1.24 times using net capital generation. The equivalent figures last year were 1.11 times and 0.85 times respectively.

That is a meaningful improvement, particularly because net capital generation did not cover the interim dividend in the comparative period.

Total capital coverage increased to 229% from 218% at the end of 2025. Aberdeen expects to redeem £210 million of Tier 1 debt in December, subject to regulatory approval. That debt contributed approximately 25 percentage points to first-half capital coverage, so the reported ratio will reduce if it is called.

Can Aberdeen meet its 2026 targets?

Management remains confident of delivering full-year adjusted operating profit of at least £300 million and net capital generation of approximately £300 million.

With £151 million of adjusted operating profit and £163 million of net capital generation achieved in the first half, both targets appear within reach based on the disclosed figures. Still, delivery depends on market conditions and second-half execution.

Aberdeen expects interactive investor revenue to grow broadly in line with customer numbers. Investments profit should step up, supported by recent bolt-on acquisitions, higher markets and expected fee income. Expenses in that division are forecast to rise modestly.

Beyond 2026, management is targeting annual net capital generation growth of 5% to 10% over the medium term, assuming no major market irregularities.

What matters now for Aberdeen shareholders

These results provide evidence that Aberdeen's restructuring and efficiency work is improving underlying profitability. Interactive investor is growing strongly, investment performance is recovering and dividend coverage is healthier.

The main concern is that group net outflows excluding liquidity reached £1.0 billion, compared with a £0.5 billion inflow last year. Strong platform inflows are still being offset by withdrawals from Adviser and Investments.

The next test is therefore not simply another period of cost savings. Investors will want to see better commercial momentum across the traditional asset management and adviser businesses, while interactive investor continues scaling without excessive cost growth.

For now, Aberdeen has made credible progress towards its 2026 financial targets. Turning improved performance and service into positive group-wide flows is the more demanding part of the recovery story.