STANDARD Life Investments (SLI) is now the UK's fifth biggest retail fund manager, having climbed from the 39th position it occupied a decade ago.

The advance was underlined by the group yesterday as it marked 10 years under chief executive Keith Skeoch, and reiterated the strong performance revealed in last week's parent company interim figures.

SLI said it had enjoyed a record-breaking first half to 2014 which continued "the tremendous momentum the company has seen over the past ten years". Third party net inflows were not a record but came in at £4.2bn, while third party assets under management (AUM) of £108bn (up from £16bn in 2004), total AUM of £195.1bn and operating profit before tax of £104m (from £6m) all set new highs.

Mr Skeoch said SLI's progress had come "despite some of the most volatile and challenging markets experienced in recent times" and he went on: "As a firm believer in the benefits of long-term active investing, what pleases me most are the strong relationships we have established with institutional and retail clients over the past 10 years."

He said it had been an unbroken decade of third party net inflows, growing at 17 per cent a year overall. Inflows from overseas clients had increased from three per cent to 57 per cent, and SLI was now the largest active manager of purely UK pension assets, up from 20th position in 2004.