Aberdeen merges German units in bid to boost sales

* Merges various businesses under Aberdeen AG

* Move designed to drive cross-selling, cut costs

* 'Handful' of job cuts made amid restructuring

LONDON, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN.L) has consolidated its German equities, fixed income and property businesses into one single unit as it seeks to find more sales synergies and cost savings, it said on Monday.

Aberdeen Asset Managers Deutschland, Aberdeen Property Investors Deutschland GmbH and DEGI Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Immobilienfonds mbH will be consolidated under Aberdeen Asset Management Deutschland AG (Aberdeen AG).

Aberdeen AG, which will oversee assets of more than 8 billion euros ($11.7 billion) with around 120 employees based in Germany, will also be responsible for the Austrian business.

The company hopes to profit by selling all available funds in its range to German and Austrian clients. Previously, sales teams at DEGI were not cross-selling.

An Aberdeen spokesman said "a handful" of jobs had been cut as a result of the reorganisation, but the bulk of the staff cuts had been made earlier this year. He declined to give a figure on total job cuts made.

Aberdeen set up a local presence in Germany in 2007 a branch in Frankfurt and a property company in Cologne.

Early in 2008, the group bought the property fund company DEGI, accessing for the first time business to open-ended property funds in Germany.

DEGI closed two of its funds to redemptions at the height of the financial crisis in October last year. It reopened the 2 billion euro DEGI International in February, but the 1.7 billion euro DEGI Europa remains closed, the spokesman said. (Reporting by Raji Menon; Editing by Dan Lalor) ($1 = 0.6839 euro)