Standard Life

History

The Standard Life Assurance Company was established in 1825 and was reincorporated as a mutual assurance company in 1925.

During the 19th century it opened offices in Canada, India, China and Uruguay.

In 2006 demutualisation took place and the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange.

The company sold Standard Life Bank plc to Barclays plc in January 2010 and then acquired the remaining 75 per cent stake in Threesixty, a financial advisory support business, that it did not already own for an undisclosed sum in March 2010.

It sold its healthcare division to Discovery Holdings, a South African business, in May 2010 and went on to buy Focus Solutions Group, a financial software company, for £42m in December 2010.

In February 2013, the company announced that it had acquired the private client division of Newton Management Limited, a UK wealth management unit of BNY Mellon, in a deal worth up to £83.5 million.

In March 2014, it was announced that Standard Life was in advanced talks to purchase rival Phoenix Group Holdings’ Ignis Asset Management for around £400 million. Towards the end of the month, Standard Life completed the acquisition for a fee of £390 million.

In September 2014, Standard Life agreed to sell its Canadian operations to The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of Manulife Financial Corporation. It completed this sale on 30 January 2015 for a cash consideration of C$4.0bn. The transaction included a Global Collaboration Agreement where Manulife will seek to distribute Standard Life Investments' funds in Canada, the US and Asia.

In a round-up of 2014 business, pre-tax profits rose by 19% to £604m, fee-based revenue during the year grew 14% to 1.43bn, and over 340,000 auto-enrolment customers were added. The pay and bonus of Chief Executive, David Nish, rose by 23% to almost £5.5m.

In February 2015, Standard Life announced it was launching a wholly owned, UK-wide, financial advice business saying it was “responding to fundamental changes that were driving unprecedented demand for advice from customers”. In doing so, it confirmed that it had entered into an agreement with Skipton Building Society to purchase Pearson Jones, a firm of financial advisers and paraplanners, and this acquisition was completed in May 2015 when the name of its new financial advice business was announced as “1825” – a reference to the year Standard Life was founded.

In July 2016, a property investment fund managed by Standard Life Investments froze withdrawals after experiencing liquidity issues.

Operations

Standard Life is an investment company, headquartered in Edinburgh, with operations across the globe. It employs around 6,300 people internationally through businesses in the UK, Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia. It has around 4.5 million customers and clients across 45 countries and is responsible for the administration of £357bn of their assets. The company has a further 25 million customers through its Indian and Chinese associate and joint venture businesses - HDFC Life in India and Heng An Standard Life in China.

Standard Life Investments offers global asset management expertise and actively manages over £278bn worldwide.

In the UK, Standard Life also owns three subsidiary businesses: Focus Solutions, a software and consultancy business, threesixty, a services provider and Vebnet, a software and services provider.

Standard Life has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, and has around 1.2 million individual shareholders. It is also listed in a number of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI), including the DJSI World, which ranks the world's leading sustainability-driven publicly listed companies.

In March 2017, Standard Life reached an agreement to merge with Aberdeen Asset Management, in an all-share merger, subject to shareholder approval.

Senior management

The company’s board of directors is made up of a Chairman, four Executive Directors and seven non-Executive Directors. The board has nine men and three women. Details of the Chairman and Executive Directors include:

The non-executive directors are:

Controversy

In January 2006, Standard Life were accused of smearing a policy-holder, Michael Hogan, who was not happy with the way the company was being run. An e-mail sent to Standard Life executives and advisors (which was disclosed under the Data Protection Act) revealed an attempt to discredit him.

In January 2007, the head of Standard Life's life and pensions business, Trevor Matthews, used the racist phrase "nigger in the woodpile" while giving a presentation at one of the company's Edinburgh offices. After issuing an apology, Mr Matthews remained in his job and no disciplinary action was taken.

In March 2007 the company announced it would cut 1,000 jobs in an attempt to save an additional £100 million per year in costs. One month later it was highlighted in the company's annual report that three of Standard Life's top executives (Sandy Crombie, Keith Skeoch and Trevor Matthews) were awarded more than £5 million in pay. A Standard Life spokesman defended the awards, citing the leadership's efforts in turning round the company's fortunes.

In February 2014, Standard Life announced that it may move parts of their operations outside Scotland in the event of Scottish independence, if it was necessary to do so.