18/10/2007

Standard Life Investments named 'UK asset management Firm of the year'

It was announced today that Standard Life Investments, a leading investment house, has won the 'UK Asset Management Firm of the Year' award at the Financial News Awards for Excellence in Institutional Asset Management – Europe 2007.

Held at the Guildhall in the City of London last night, these awards aim to provide the definitive and authoritative industry view of the performance and strategy of the main players in European institutional asset management industry.

Keith Skeoch, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Life Investments, said:

"Despite being a challenging year for some, 2007 has witnessed Standard Life Investments go from strength to strength. We have continued to grow our third party assets to the point where they now represent around a third of our entire business. Given that we were launched in 1998, this is a tremendous achievement and a large part of this success has been down to our UK business."

"The key to our success in the UK? Performance, process and people. We are in the enviable position where we can demonstrate strong performance across the likes of UK equities, UK bonds and UK property, as wells as high levels of client service delivered by our client fund manager teams."

"Our 'Focus on Change' philosophy grew out of our approach to investing in equities and bonds in the UK. It now provides the backbone to a truly differentiated investment process which is both robust and repeatable across the globe."

"Perhaps the most underrated element in any successful investment house is its people. Whether it’s manufacturing performance, winning mandates or servicing clients, the clutch of awards we’ve won in recent months* verifies my belief that we have one of the most talented teams in the UK fund management community."

"I genuinely believe that this combination sets us apart from our competitors and allows us to deliver the kind of products and services which make a real difference to our clients."

*Recent UK awards include:

• 'Citywire Team All Stars Asset Group Winner - UK Equities' and 'Citywire Team All Stars Sector Winner - UK All Companies' at the Citywire Team All Stars Awards 2007
• 5 Star Award in the Investment Provider & Packager category at the FTAdviser Online Service Awards 2007
• 'Active UK Equity Manager of the Year’ title at the Pension & Investment Provider Awards (PIPA) 2007
• 'Investment Manager of the Year' and 'Specialist Manager of the Year (UK Equities)' at the UK Pensions Awards 2007
• 'Best Performing Smaller Companies Fund Award' at the PLC Awards 2007
• 'Best Overall Group Awards' at the Lipper Fund Awards 2007 in the 'Equity Large' and 'UK Equity Large' categories
• In October, Standard Life Investments picked up the ‘UK Asset Management Firm of the Year’ award at the Financial News Awards for Excellence in Institutional Asset Management – Europe 2007