British insurer and asset manager Standard Life weathered a tough market environment to post forecast-beating asset growth and profits in the first six months of the year, sending its shares almost five percent higher.
Money managers have faced heightened market volatility so far this year, with many suffering mutual fund outflows as retail investors were spooked by events including Britain's vote to leave the European Union in June.
Standard Life's flagship 26 billion pounds ($33.83 billion) Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund (GARS) fund saw quarterly outflows for the first time ever in the three months including the June 23 referendum date.
Barclays analyst Alan Devlin noted that flows remained positive over the half-year at 600 million pounds, albeit sharply below the figure of 5.6 billion a year earlier.
"The company indicated institutional flows were stickier than wholesale flows. The key will be if the performance of GARS can stabilise and hence flows stabilise," he wrote in a note.
Total assets under administration rose 7 percent to 328 billion pounds, however, up from 307.4 billion pounds at end-December, helped by 19.7 billion pounds in market gains as sterling weakened and bond yields dropped after the Brexit vote.
The growth in total assets exceeded a 313.9 billion pound consensus forecast of 16 analysts provided by the company and helped the firm's underlying operating performance rise 14 percent over the period.
Operating pretax profits, meanwhile, rose 18 percent to 341 million pounds, underpinning a 7.5 percent increase in its interim dividend to 6.47 pence a share.