Focus on fee business driving growth and performance
Fee based revenue, including Ignis, up 17% to £761m with 95% of income now fee based
Assets under administration1 up to £302.1bn (FY 2014: £296.6bn; H1 2014: £223.9bn) in volatile markets, driven by increased demand for our investment solutions and acquisition of Ignis
Standard Life Investments meeting the investment needs of customers across the globe:
o Strong 3rd party net inflows of £5.2bn despite outflow from low revenue margin mandate of £1.7bn
o Wholesale and institutional net inflows of £7.1bn of which 70% from outside of the UK
o Continuing excellent investment performance with 3rd party AUM above benchmark2 - 1 year 79%; 3 years 95%; 5 years 97%
UK business building momentum and well placed in a changing long-term savings environment:
o Workplace and retail new fee business net inflows up 23% to £2.9bn, representing annualised 8% of opening AUA
o Added 120,000 new customers in the UK through auto enrolment in H1 2015 contributing to 15% increase in regular contributions into workplace pensions
o Increased Wrap assets by 11% to £23.3bn with Wrap net inflows up 17% to £2.1bn
Group underlying performance*,1 up 9% to £299m and operating profit1,3 before tax up 6% to £290m after a £39m reduction in spread/risk margin
Group underlying cash generation1 up 17% to £223m
Interim dividend up 7.5% to 6.02p
David Nish, Chief Executive, commented:
"Standard Life has performed well during the first half of 2015 driven by a focus on providing value for our customers, clients and shareholders. We have increased the assets that we administer on behalf of our customers to £302bn helped by strong demand for our propositions.
"Standard Life Investments actively manages £250bn of assets across the globe driven by consistently strong investment performance. We are continuing to see the benefits of our expanding distribution capabilities and strategic relationships with 70%4 of net inflows from outside the UK and strong growth in net inflows through the wholesale channel.
"Our UK fee based propositions continue to build momentum with regular contributions into our workplace pensions up 15%. The strength of these propositions, investment solutions and our market positioning means we have been able to help our customers with the new pensions regulations and continue to support them as saving for their futures becomes increasingly front of mind.
"It has been an absolute privilege to lead Standard Life for the last six years and to help build our business into the strong global player it is today. I wish Keith and the inspirational people across all of our Group every success for the future. Standard Life is very well positioned to deliver ongoing growth and to help our customers and clients to save and invest, so that they can look forward to their financial futures with confidence."
