Standard Life has played down a 67 per cent crash in its annuity sales and says it expects modestly higher markets this year to help steady its performance.
In a third quarter update marked by the integration of £61billion of assets from Glasgow-based Ignis, and the subtraction of £30bn of assets prior to the £2.2bn sale of its Canadian business, Standard reported a rise in assets under administration from £215bn at the start of the year to £290bn.
It said the outlook for annuities remained uncertain following government changes with a "significant reduction in demand and a step down in the profitability" expected in its traditional business.
But chief executive David Nish insisted that Standard was "strongly placed to deal with the far-reaching reforms to the savings and retirement income rules ... and to support customers through these changes. We have an excellent track record of succeeding in evolving markets."
Meanwhile investment chief Keith Skeoch said he believed markets would "edge higher" in the remainder of 2014 and there would be no return to "the dark days of people worrying about European break-up."
The group had been at the centre of feverish attention in the run-up to the independence referendum after chairman Sir Gerry Grimstone said it stood ready to transfer the domicile of over 180 subsidiary entities to England to avoid the uncertainty of a new Scottish regulator - a more detailed warning than that given by any other company. In the aftermath of the vote, an industry insider was quoted as saying that the upheavals could have cost leading players "hundreds of millions."
But yesterday Standard's new finance director Luke Savage, standing in for Mr Nish at a morning conference, was unwilling to revisit the issue. On the current devolution consultations, he said: "We have made it clear we are happy to contribute to any debate around reform."
Paul Matthews, head of Standard's UK business, said that on annuities the company was "seeing roughly what we expected to see." He said: "We will have to wait and see how many customers who have not done anything yet decide to take cash in April when the new rules come in." Only three out of 10 customers took a Standard annuity but the company was leader in the drawdown market and it was " quite excited that quite a few could go into drawdown."
The surge in smaller firms hitting their pension auto-enrolment staging date helped push total customers past 500,000, including 117,500 in the quarter. Total platform assets under administration increased by 15 per cent year-to-date, from £19.4bn to £22.4bn.
The company said fee revenue from continuing operations was up 13 per cent year-to-date to £1,032m from £913m, while net inflows had totalled £4.3bn.
Analyst Oliver Steel at Deutsche Bank said that while the rise in assets had beaten expectations, and fee income was as expected, inflows had disappointed after stripping out the new Ignis business and an expected pension outflow.
He said recent market volatility, along with loss of funds following the loss (to rival Old Mutual) of the former Absolute Return Global Bond team at Ignis, had prompted him to shave 5 per cent from profit forecasts.
Mr Skeoch stressed that Standard's own multi-asset team running the key GARS (global absolute return) strategy was intact, and that it was performing well, but he admitted that the Ignis departures had prompted some outflows of business.
He said the integration of Ignis, which will see the closure of its Glasgow office, was on track to conclude by the end of next year. The Canadian sale will see £1.75bn returned to shareholders next year in a share restructuring (not a special dividend).
On the markets, Mr Skeoch said: "I think it will be modestly higher from here.
"There is an awful lot of bad news discounted in European markets at the moment, I would not expect the same kind of panic that took hold three or four years ago."
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