The Edinburgh-based investment house posted a pre-tax loss of £320m on Tuesday — compared with profits of £113m in the same period last year — while commission income fell 8%. Diluted loss per share was 13.9p, from earnings of 4.7p. per share a year ago. Abrdn said it expected the gloomy outlook to improve in the second half as tough market conditions showed signs of easing and inflows came online from its acquisition of trading platform Interactive Investor (ii). “Looking ahead to the second half, we will see no-risk revenue headwinds from a full six months’ contribution from ii and from performance fees,” chief executive Stephen Bird said. The company said it would maintain its £300m capital return program to shareholders and keep its dividend flat at 7.3p per share. “Now that the acquisition is complete and with our disciplined approach to capital allocation to deliver shareholder returns, we will continue to return capital in excess of business needs as further share sales take place,” Bird said. Assets under management and administration at the group fell to £508bn – compared to £542bn in the first half of 2021 – despite being partly offset by asset inflows from deal ii and largely driven from the withdrawal of Lloyd’s Banking Group’s investment mandate. Abrdn, which was rebranded in 2021, was created when fund managers Standard Life and Aberdeen merged in 2017. However, since then assets under management have fallen and the group’s combined market value has shrunk.