Standard Life

Standard Life plc
Public company
Traded as LSE: SL.
Industry Financial services
Founded 1825 (1825)
Headquarters Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Key people
 Sir Gerry Grimstone, Chairman
Keith Skeoch, CEO from August 2015
Revenue £8,892 million (2015)[1]
£549 million (2015)[1]
£415 million (2015)[1]
Number of employees
 6,500 (2016)[2]
Website

www.standardlife.com http://www.standardlifeinvestments.com

https://www.standardlife.co.uk

Standard Life plc is an investment company with headquarters in Edinburgh and operations around the globe. It has 1.2 million shareholders in more than 50 countries[2] and 4.5 million customers and clients worldwide, with a further 25 million customers through joint ventures in China and India.[3]

History

The Standard Life Assurance Company was established in 1825 and was reincorporated as a mutual assurance company in 1925.[4]

During the 19th century it opened offices in Canada, India, China and Uruguay.[4]

In 2006 demutualisation took place and the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange.[5]

The company sold Standard Life Bank plc to Barclays plc in January 2010[6] and then acquired the remaining 75 per cent stake in Threesixty, a financial advisory support business, that it did not already own for an undisclosed sum in March 2010.[7]

Head office building located at
30 Lothian Road in Edinburgh

It sold its healthcare division to Discovery Holdings, a South African business, in May 2010[8] and went on to buy Focus Solutions Group, a financial software company, for £42m in December 2010.[9]

In February 2013, the company announced that it had acquired the private client division of Newton Management Limited, a UK wealth management unit of BNY Mellon, in a deal worth up to £83.5 million.[10]

In March 2014, it was announced that Standard Life was in advanced talks to purchase rival Phoenix Group Holdings’ Ignis Asset Management for around £400 million.[11] Towards the end of the month, Standard Life completed the acquisition for a fee of £390 million.[12]

In September 2014, Standard Life agreed to sell its Canadian operations to The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Manulife Financial Corporation.[13] It completed this sale on 30 January 2015 for a cash consideration of C$4.0bn. The transaction included a Global Collaboration Agreement where Manulife will seek to distribute Standard Life Investments' funds in Canada, the US and Asia.[14]

In a round-up of 2014 business, pre-tax profits rose by 19% to £604m, fee-based revenue during the year grew 14% to 1.43bn, and over 340,000 auto-enrolment customers were added. The pay and bonus of Chief Executive, David Nish, rose by 23% to almost £5.5m.[15]

In February 2015, Standard Life announced it was launching a wholly owned, UK-wide, financial advice business saying it was “responding to fundamental changes that were driving unprecedented demand for advice from customers”.[16] In doing so, it confirmed that it had entered into an agreement with Skipton Building Society to purchase Pearson Jones,[17] a firm of financial advisers and paraplanners, and this acquisition was completed in May 2015 when the name of its new financial advice business was announced as “1825” – a reference to the year Standard Life was founded.[18]

In July 2016, a property investment fund managed by Standard Life Investments froze withdrawals after experiencing liquidity issues.[19][20][21]

Operations

Standard Life is an investment company, headquartered in Edinburgh, with operations across the globe.[22] It employs around 6,500 people internationally[2] through businesses in the UK, Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia. It has around 4.5 million customers and clients across 46 countries and is responsible for the administration of £328bn of their assets. The company has a further 25 million customers through its Indian and Chinese associate and joint venture businesses - HDFC Life in India and Heng An Standard Life in China.[22]

Standard Life Investments offers global asset management expertise and actively manages over £269bn worldwide.

In the UK, Standard Life also owns three subsidiary businesses: Focus Solutions, a software and consultancy business, threesixty, a services provider and Vebnet, a software and services provider.[23]

Standard Life has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, and has around 1.2 million individual shareholders.[24] It is also listed in a number of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI), including the DJSI World, which ranks the world's leading sustainability-driven publicly listed companies.[25]

Senior management

The company’s board of directors is made up of a Chairman, four Executive Directors and seven non-Executive Directors.[26] The board has nine men and three women. Details of the Chairman and Executive Directors include:

The non-executive directors are:

Controversy

In January 2006, Standard Life were accused of smearing a policy-holder, Michael Hogan, who was not happy with the way the company was being run. An e-mail sent to Standard Life executives and advisors (which was disclosed under the Data Protection Act) revealed an attempt to discredit him.[27]

In March 2007 the company announced it would cut 1,000 jobs in an attempt to save an additional £100 million per year in costs.[28] One month later it was highlighted in the company's annual report that three of Standard Life's top executives (Sandy Crombie, Keith Skeoch and Trevor Matthews) were awarded more than £5 million in pay.[29] A Standard Life spokesman defended the awards, citing the leadership's efforts in turning round the company's fortunes.[29]

In February 2014, Standard Life announced that it may move parts of their operations outside Scotland in the event of Scottish independence, if it was necessary to do so.[30]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Annual Report 2015" (PDF). Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 "About Standard Life". standardlife.com. Retrieved 26 March 2016.
  3. ↑ "London Stock Exchange Market News". Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  4. 1 2 Standard Life history: One of the first Empire builders The Scotsman, 2 September 2010
  5. ↑ Standard Life policyholders rush to cash in on flotation The Guardian, 24 September 2006
  6. ↑ Barclays buys Standard Life Bank for £226m Daily Telegraph, 26 October 2009
  7. ↑ Standard Life takes full control of Threesixty The Scotsman, 15 March 2010
  8. ↑ Standard Life sells healthcare division BBC News, 11 May 2010
  9. ↑ Standard Life buys Focus for £42m BBC News, 7 December 2010
  10. ↑ Nicole Blackmore (27 February 2013). "Standard Life Wealth acquires Newton's private client division". Fundweb.
  11. ↑ Richa Naidu (24 March 2014). "Standard Life in advanced talks to buy Phoenix asset management unit". Reuters.
  12. ↑ Simon Jessop (26 March 2014). "Standard Life ramps up fund business with Ignis acquisition". Reuters.
  13. ↑ Manulife to buy Standard Life's Canadian assets for $3.7 billion. Reuters, 4 September 2014
  14. ↑ "CityAM News - Disposal of Canadian Companies". CityAM. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  15. ↑ "BBC News - Standard Life reports sharp rise in operating profit". BBC News. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  16. ↑ "London Stock Exchange, Market News". London Stock Exchange. 6 February 2015.
  17. ↑ "Standard Life completes purchase of Pearson Jones in £1bn advice play". Professional Adviser. 11 May 2015.
  18. ↑ "Standard Life names restricted advice business 1825". Professional Adviser. 1 May 2015.
  19. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jul/04/standard-life-shuts-property-fund-post-brexit-withdrawals
  20. ↑ http://www.ft.com/fastft/2016/07/05/fund-manager-shares-slide-after-standard-life-fund-freeze/
  21. ↑ http://www.businessinsider.com.au/jefferies-warns-of-repeat-of-2007-for-uk-property-as-standard-life-pauses-withdrawals-from-fund-2016-7
  22. 1 2 "Standard Life PLC (SL.L) Company Profile". Reuters.com. Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  23. ↑ Sullivan, Nicola (2010-12-08). "Standard Life acquires Focus Solutions to enhance corporate wrap | News". Employee Benefits. Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  24. ↑ "STANDARD LIFE PLC ORD 10P Share Price - Shares". London Stock Exchange. 2006-07-10. Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  25. ↑ "Standard Life plc Joins Top 10% of Companies in the World - EDINBURGH, Scotland, October 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/". Prnewswire.com. 2011-10-24. Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  26. ↑ "Standard Life PLC, SL.:LSE company performance - FT.com". Markets.ft.com. Retrieved 2013-04-04.
  27. ↑ Richard Dyson, Mail on Sunday29 January 2006, 12:00 am (29 January 2006). "Is Standard Life fighting fair?". Thisismoney.co.uk. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  28. ↑ Standard Life in bid to axe 1,000 jobs Evening Times, 23 March 2007
  29. 1 2 "Fury at £5m for Standard Life bosses". Edinburghnews.scotsman.com. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  30. ↑ BBC (27 February 2014). "Scottish independence: Standard Life draws up 'Yes' contingency plan". BBC. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
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