A move into asset management helped to drive a 19 percent rise in operating profit for Standard Life in 2014, offsetting a hit to annuity sales from British pension reforms. Best known as an insurer, Standard Life is moving more into asset management and away from its traditional business. It sold its Canadian operations last year for $3.7 billion and also bought Ignis Asset Management for 390 million pounds ($602 million).
Chief Executive David Nish told reporters on a conference call that the deals "transformed the group further towards being a long-term investment savings business". Operating profit before tax from continuing operations rose to 604 million pounds ($931.5 million), Standard Life said in a statement, ahead of a forecast of 559 million pounds. It said it would pay a total dividend of 17.03 pence per share, again beating forecasts of 16.89 pence per share.
Standard Life's shares rallied 3.4 percent to their highest since December 8 at 423 pence. It was not all good news, however. Margins from annuity new business sales fell 66 percent last year and Standard Life expected contribution from annuity new business to drop in 2015 by between 10 and 15 million pounds. "In terms of our annuity sales, there has been a significant reduction, a direct result of the changes announced in the budget," Nish said, adding that the strength of the company's results reflected the breadth of its business.
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