Standard Life’s Irish sales drop by 18% to €439m

TOTAL sales at the Irishdivision of financial services giant Standard Life fell by 18% – to £327 million (€439m) – on a year-on-year basis in the first half of this year.

However, core pension product sales in its Irish division were up by 8%, boosted by increased demand for post-retirement products during the second quarter of the year.

In the second quarter alone domestic pension product sales were up by 66%, year-on-year, in Ireland (a strong turnaround after the first quarter’s 36% like-for-like drop in sales).

The 18% decline figure came about when the sale of offshore bonds (Standard Life’s Irish operation took over the administration of these products this year) were taken into account. A 36% drop in offshore bond sales, alone, was attributed to the impact of the weakening economy here.

The Irish division managed to achieve growth of 4% in new business levels for the first half of the year, according to national manager for Ireland Aengus Byrne.

On an overall group-wide basis, operating profit fell from £534m to £348m.

However, an increase of 2% in the interim dividend was announced, bringing it to 4.15p at the halfway stage of the year.

Group chief executive, Sandy Crombie maintained that the business is still well positioned, even though market conditions remain challenging.