It may be early days in the post-Brexit climate, but so far one major UK insurance giant appears to be weathering the storm.
Standard Life has announced that its profits for the first half of the year have leapt by 18% to stand at £341 million with diversification reported to be the primary reason for the growth. This was despite the fact, however, that its net inflows of £4.1 billion were significantly below the £7.4 billion reported for the same period during 2015.
There has certainly been a shake-up at the business in recent times with
The Financial Times reporting that its Indian arm has been the focus of change. It recently increased its stake in HDFC Life, its Indian affiliate, to 35%.
In addition, closer to home, Standard Life bought out Elevate, which handles around £10 billion in UK investments, from
AXA back in May.
Speaking about today’s results, Keith Skeoch, chief executive of Standard Life commented that the firm is on track to become “world-class”.
“Standard Life continues to make good progress towards building a world-class investment company, against a backdrop of volatile investment markets, by growing assets, profits, cash flows and returns to shareholders,” he said.
“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.”
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