Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race April 3 1999 Pep for the Boat Race from Aberdeen Christopher Dodd reports The Boat Race has secured a new sponsor - the financial management group Aberdeen Asset Management - for a three year term with an option to renew for a further three years. The six-year deal is worth more than 2.5 million. Duncan Clegg, organizer of the Boat Race, told reporters that last year's race contained probably the best Boat Race crews ever - Cambridge won their sixth successive race in record time - and that the aim of the clubs in working with a sponsor was always to optimize the way the money is spent, not to maximize it. 'The total is not what we hoped for a year ago, but it is a very good deal considering the economic caution and the prestige events searching for sponsors in the market place', he said. Martin Gilbert, chief executive of Aberdeen said that his aim in the first sponsorship that his company has undertaken was to achieve a greater awareness of Aberdeen among the top 15 unit trust groups among which it is now included. The boat club presidents, Brad Crombie of Cambridge and Charlie Humphries of Oxford, reported excellent results in their winter camps and promised to make life difficult for one another. This year's race on April 3 is the last day that punters can buy a PEP from the Aberdeen group, whose assets have risen from 100 million to 15 billion during the nineties. So in the nick of time Aberdeen have transferred their 'peps' to the Boat Race while they switch to new forms of tax-free investments. © Copyright Christopher Dodd, 1999.