Standard Life’s flagship £26 billion (€31 billion) Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund (GARS) fund saw quarterly outflows for the first time ever in the three months including the June 23 referendum date.
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By contrast, shares in Legal & General fell nearly six percent to 205.4 pence after lower profits in its investment management and general insurance businesses took the shine off an overall 10 percent rise in first-half operating profit.
Standard Life shares closed Monday at 318.50 pence.
“This will reinforce the global trends that are shaping the savings and investment landscape, which Standard Life’s long-term strategy is created to take advantage of”.
United Kingdom pension and savings assets under administration rose 5.7 per cent to £139.2 billion, with regular contributions into Workplace pensions up four per cent to £1.5 billion.
However, earnings from continuing operations for the latest period rose to 226 million pounds or 11.4 pence per share from last year’s 69 million pounds or 3.2 pence per share.
Operating profit before tax rose by 18 per cent to £341 million, underpinning a 7.5 per cent increase in its interim dividend to 6.47 pence a share.
The group notes the Elevate deal is expected to complete in the second half of 2016.
Looking ahead, Standard Life Chief Executive Keith Skeoch said the firm would make further savings to drive significant improvements in its cost-to-income ratio.
“Despite elevated uncertainty, we are benefiting from our strong long-term relationships with a broad range of clients and customers who reacted in different ways to the changing market environment”, he said.
Skeoch said: “If approved, we expect the move to cement HDFC Life’s position as the leading private sector Indian life insurance business”.
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“Targeted investments to further our diversification agenda, together with our sharpened focus on operational efficiency will increase our pace of strategic delivery”.
