THE IRISH business of Scottish financial services giant Standard Life saw its first-half profits boosted by reduced claims and strong inflows of new business.
Domestic sales at Standard Life Ireland rose 17 per cent to £224 million (€271 million) in the first half of the year as the business’s absolute return products proved popular with both retail and institutional investors.
The Irish business contributed a pre-tax operating profit of £7 million (on an IFRS basis), having made a loss of £1 million in the same period a year earlier.
Standard Life’s offshore bonds business, based in Dublin, sustained a loss of £1 million. However this represented a marked improvement on the first half of 2009, when it lost £6 million.
Net flows into offshore bonds were boosted by more stable economic conditions, the group said in its interim results.
Both the domestic business in Ireland and the offshore business benefited from “increased management charge income and reduced operating costs”, it said.
The Standard Life group as a whole reaped the benefits of growth at its overseas division to post higher interim profits. Operating profit before tax from continuing operations rose 10 per cent from last year to £182 million, helped by growth overseas in areas such as Canada and India.
Net inflows rose 71 per cent to £5.3 billion, while the company also raised its interim dividend by 4.8 per cent. Standard Life’s earnings follow a set of solid profit increases from Britain’s top insurers this month.
In a statement the company said “the underlying demographic and regulatory trends in our key markets continue to support our future growth potential”. (Additional reporting – Reuters)
