Goldman Sachs hit by multi-million pound Aberdeen Standard Life shun

Investment banking behemoth Goldman Sachs has missed out on a multi-million pound payday after being spurned by Standard Life Aberdeen.

On Friday Standard Life Aberdeen sold its insurance arm to zombie specialist Phoenix in a deal worth £3.24bn.

Jettisoning its insurance operations completed what Standard Life Aberdeen bosses Martin Gilbert and Keith Skeoch called the firm’s “transformation to a fee-based capital-light investment company”.

Read more: Standard Life Aberdeen sells insurance arm for £3.2bn

Goldman and boutique Fenchurch Advisory Partners netted bumper fees for advising on Aberdeen’s £11bn merger with Standard Life last year.

But while Fenchurch’s services were retained to advise on the insurance sale, JP Morgan Cazenove was hired instead of Goldman. Fenchurch and JP Morgan are expected to net as much as £20m in fees between them.

Standard Life Aberdeen, Goldman Sachs and Fenchurch Advisory Partners declined to comment.

Read more: Standard Life Aberdeen slumps after losing £109bn of Scottish Widows assets