The talks had been going on for months but collapsed over failure to agree a price for the business, estimated to be worth around £45 million ($72.2 million). API has £5.9 billion ($9.5 billion) of assets under management and has been highly successful but parent company Aberdeen needs to cut costs and had hoped to raise £125 million ($201 million) through sale or flotation.
Aberdeen needed to raise cash to cut a £250 million ($402.7 million) debt, but a sale is no longer as urgent as it was. Since API was put up for sale last November, the company has renegotiated its debt and replaced a consortium of banks with just HBOS, which is supportive of the company retaining API.
There was also opposition from some of API's clients to a property company taking over the business. British Land had proposed to run API at arms length but clients feared that it would still be able to cherry pick the best investment opportunities.
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