Abrdn, the Edinburgh-headquartered asset management giant, has become the UK’s most shorted company as hedge funds and investment firms make big bets that the Scottish firm’s share price will fall.

That’s according to the Short Tracker website.

Abrdn’s share price has bounced back more than 30% over the past six months – but it is down 15% for the past 12 months and down roughly 50% taken over five years.

Investors betting short against Abrdn’s shares include Blackrock, Citadel Advisors, GLG Partners, Millennium International Management, Point72 Asset Management, and Qube Research & Technologies Limited, according to Short Tracker.

The investors are now shorting 6.2% of Abrdn’s stock, according to Short Tracker.

Abrdn manages and administers roughly £500 billion of assets and is due to report its full-year results on February 28.

The Trustnet website had already reported that short positions in Abrdn’s shares rose in January.

On November 30 last year FTSE Russell confirmed that Abrdn would return to the FTSE 100 Index as a result of the December 2022 quarterly review.

Promotion to the FTSE 100 can boost a company’s share price because some large investment funds — especially passive “tracker” index funds — have a mandate to buy shares in the index.