Edinburgh-based investment giant Standard Life Aberdeen plc confirmed that its new chief executive officer Stephen Bird bought 500,000 shares in the company at 217.59p for just over £1 million on October 29.

Bird recently joined Standard Life Aberdeen to succeed Keith Skeoch as CEO.

Bird was formerly CEO of global consumer banking at Citigroup.

He is originally from Motherwell and lives in Edinburgh, where he will be based as CEO. 

Skeoch was one of the architects of the £11 billion merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management in 2017, along with Aberdeen’s CEO Martin Gilbert, who also recently left the combined firm. 

Bird’s base salary will be £875,000 a year, but he also has bonus and incentive arrangements in place that could take his total annual package up to several million pounds, subject to performance and conditions.