Standard Life delivers profits boost

Standard Life today announced better than expected profits and said it planned to target a further £100m (€109m) of efficiency savings by 2012.

The Edinburgh-based company, which recently appointed finance chief David Nish as its new chief executive, said operating profits of £919m (€1bn) represented a good performance in an uncertain year for financial markets.

The 1.5% drop was much higher than City forecasts for a figure of around £662m (€726m).

It added that it had started the new year in a healthy position after the return of investor appetite resulted in a 38% leap in UK sales to £2.88bn (€3.1bn) over the last three months of 2009.

The company, which employs around 10,000 people, made savings worth £47m (€51.5m) last year towards its target of £75m (€82m) of efficiencies by the end of 2010.

It will look to boost margins with another £100m (€109m) of savings by 2012, including from technology and procurement.

At the same time, Standard said it will spend more than £200m (€218m) to develop and promote its products in retail and corporate markets in 2010.