23/07/2008

SLI Secures SICAV Agreement With DWP Bank Platform In Germany

Standard Life Investments (SLI), the global fund manager, today announced that its entire Luxembourg-domiciled SICAV fund range is now available to German investors through dwpbank*, the market leading platform for Landesbanks and Savingsbanks in Germany. This announcement follows similar agreements with Frankfurter Fondsbank and Fidelity's FundsNetwork™ in Germany.

Sub funds in the SICAV range include the Global REIT Focus Fund, the Global Equity Fund, the China Equity Fund, the Eurozone Equity Fund, the European Corporate Bond Fund and the European High Yield Bond Fund. Other equity funds in the range include the Asian Equity Fund, the European Equity Fund, the Japanese Equity Fund and the US Equity Fund.

The other bond funds in the range are the Euro Government Bond Fund, the Euro Inflation Linked Bond Fund, the Global Bond Fund, the Global Inflation Linked Bond Fund, the European Extended Duration Fund and the European Government All Stocks Fund.

Earlier this month, SLI's entire Luxembourg-domiciled SICAV fund range was included on Frankfurter Fondsbank's broker platform. In February, SLI also announced that six SICAV funds** were being added to Fidelity's FundsNetwork™ platform in Germany.

Phil Barker, Head of European Business Development, SLI, said:

"Given that the Abgeltungsteuer - or capital gains tax - comes into force in Germany on 1 January 2009, it's important that investors are able to access our funds now - as investments made this year will be tax free. dwpbank is the leading fund platform for banks in Germany and its system displays fund lists in every client bank office. I'm confident that the strength of our performance and breadth of our product offering will be a welcome enhancement to the options available to investors through dwp's client banks."

In April of this year, Standard Life Investments also signed an agreement with Nordea, one of the Nordic and Baltic regions largest financial groups, to distribute its Global REIT Focus Fund across the Nordic and Baltic Sea region. In October 2007, SLI also announced that it had signed an agreement with Aktia, the Finnish Savings Bank, to distribute its Global REIT Focus Fund in Finland.