ANOTHER year of job losses and a cut to its pension scheme helped Standard Life to a better-than-expected 28% rise in 2011 profit.
The news came as the Edinburgh-based pensions and savings giant revealed Lynne Peacock, former chief executive at Glasgow-headquartered Clydesdale Bank, is to join its board.
Standard Life posted a pre-tax profit of £544 million for the year, against the £476m expected.
A cut in future pension increases in the staff retirement scheme (from a retail prices index inflation basis to the typically lower consumer prices index) was the key reason for outperformance after it saved the company £64m.
The company also cut some 600 jobs in the UK, taking employee numbers from 6800 to 6200 during the year, while the overall global workforce went from 9500 to 9000.
Chief executive David Nish said he would continue pursuing efficiency savings but would also seek to expand the business.
"We are here to grow Standard Life," he said.
Standard Life slashed £79m from running costs last year and said it should reach its £100m savings target in the first half of this year, earlier than expected.
The company was further boosted by a £77m surge in pre-tax profit to £187m at its Canadian business last year. But UK profits fell 6% to £220m.
Standard Life announced a final dividend of 9.2p, a 6.2% increase on last year. This will be paid on May 31. Mr Nish said the results were "strong", adding: "They demonstrate we are well on track to transform the financial and operational performance of Standard Life."
While rivals such as Prudential hiked dividends and focused on growing markets in Asia, Mr Nish has concentrated on the UK. He has sought to position Standard Life to take advantage of pensions auto-enrolment and reforms to the financial advisory market that will kick in this autumn.
"It is really great to be in 2012. I feel like we have been talking about it for a long time," he said.
But he added: "The outside world has its challenges. There has been an impact on consumer confidence. We expect a slightly slower start to 2012."
Mr Nish warned the Government against cutting tax rebates on pension contributions by higher earners in the Budget.
"I think we need a period of stability. Let's just implement what we have got, get confidence back into long-term savings. That will do the country a lot of good."
Standard Life announced that senior independent director, Tory peer Lord Norman Blackwell, is to retire at the annual shareholder meeting in May after nine years on its board, when fellow non-executive, ex-Labour Party general secretary Baroness Margaret McDonagh, who has served since 2007, will step
down. As a result, non-executive John Paynter, a former City stockbroker with Cazenove, will become senior independent director.
Meanwhile, Lynne Peacock will join as a non-executive, with a fee of £70,000 a year, from April 1.
Ms Peacock retired as chief executive of Clydesdale Bank on June 30 and is currently a non-executive at Scottish Water and Nationwide Building Society. Clydesdale's future is currently uncertain after her successor David Thorburn launched a major strategic review.
Standard Life's shares rose 0.9p or 0.4% to 238.5p.
Meanwhile, the Prudential announced a 7% rise in operating profit to £2.1 billion. For the first time the majority of this came from its Asian life insurance business which saw earnings rise 22% to £1.8bn.
It declared a full-year dividend of 25.19p, up 5.6% on last year, to be paid on May 24.
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