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Abrdn plans to axe 500 jobs as the UK asset manager seeks to lift profits and revive a languishing share price.

The job losses are the centrepiece of a £150mn cost-saving programme Abdrn set out on Wednesday, as the company revealed that outflows from its funds had accelerated in the second half of last year.

Since his appointment as chief executive in 2020, Stephen Bird has sought to overhaul its funds in a bid to staunch outflows. More than 100 of its investment funds have been closed, restructured or merged since the former Citigroup executive took the top job.

In a statement on Wednesday, Abrdn said that “after a root and branch review, we are now re-engineering and simplifying our business model to remove at least £150mn of costs — mostly from group functions and support services”.

Investors pulled £9.5bn from Abrdn’s funds in the six months to the end of December, more than double the £4.4bn yanked in the first half. The group pinned some of the blame on geopolitical uncertainty.

Bird said: “The new transformation programme . . . when completed, will deliver a step change in our cost to income ratio.”

Abrdn, which was formed through the merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management in 2017, employs about 5,000 people.