18/09/2007

SLI's Growth Accelerates

Standard Life Investments has recorded its strongest ever first half sales and profit figures as growth accelerates. Key highlights for the leading investment house over the six months to 30 June 2007 include:-

• IFRS profit before tax up 43% to £40m [Half Year 2006: £28m (Full Year 2006 £66m)]
• Worldwide net investment sales of £5.6bn* up over 59% [Half Year 2006: £3.5bn]
• Total net UK institutional sales of £2.1bn, an increase of 40% [H1 2006: £1.5bn]
• UK net mutual fund sales rise almost 63% to £1.1bn [H1 2006: £683.5m]
• Third party funds under management up, almost 20%, by £7.6bn to £46.1bn [31 Dec 2006: £38.5bn]
• Total funds under management increased by £8.5bn to £140.6bn [31 Dec 2006: £132.1bn]

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

"The first half of 2007 has been an exciting time for Standard Life Investments which continues to go from strength to strength achieving record levels of profit, sales, and funds under management. Continued investment outperformance has helped drive substantial retail and institutional third party mandate wins.

"Sales of our mutual fund products have increased dramatically. SLI enjoyed its strongest six months yet for net mutual fund sales, £1.1bn with May being the strongest sales (£190.9m) month in the history of the company.

"It is very pleasing to note however that the increase in sales isn’t restricted to any one area with mutual funds, institutional and Canadian sales all performing particularly strongly. Institutional sales were up over 36% to £2.1bn with segregated mandate wins up almost 60% on the same period last year.

"We continue to attract new clients through high levels of service and strong investment performance, investment performance that is increasingly being recognised in the market and has contributed to SLI lifting seven prestigious awards** to date this year.

"I am confident that as we continue to diversify our business and see a strong track record emerging in what we regard as 'category killer’ products - global equities, global property and private equity - that Standard Life Investments can compete with the very best, not just in the UK but beyond.

Performance

Performance remained strong during the six month period. 18 of the company’s 23 pooled pension funds beat the median, with six of these funds top decile and seven funds top quartile.

Over 12 months, 21 out of SLI’s 23 mutual funds beat their respective medians, with 17 of these funds top quartile and 10 of these top decile. Over three years, 17 out of 19 qualifying funds beat their respective medians, with 10 of them top quartile and 7 of these funds achieving top decile performance.

Standard Life Investments’ money weighted average performance across all product groups is comfortably above median over one, three, five and 10 years.

*This figure comprises investment products together with third party insurance contracts (and also includes net sales of £1,398m for Aaa Cash fund). New business relating to third party insurance contracts was disclosed as insurance business for reporting purposes in Standard Life plc’s Half Year Results 2007.

**Awards to date, see note to editor 9.

Press Enquiries:

Brian Simmons, Press Manager, Standard Life Investment, +44 (0)131 245 5935
Richard England, Press Manager, Standard Life Investments, +44 (0)131 245 2750
Hilda Stewart, Press Officer, Standard Life Investments, +44 (0)131 245 3610
To access our virtual press office, please click on the link below: http://uk.standardlifeinvestments.com/content/press/press_index.html

Notes to Editors

1.Indices performed as follows over the period 30 December 2006 to 30 June 2007, they are all in sterling and include reinvestment of income:

2. Funds under management table

3. New Business Table

SLI's top selling OEICs for first 6 months of 2007 and 2006 – Net sales

4. Third Party funds under management table

5. Past performance is not a guide to future returns and you may get back less than you invested.
6. With assets under management of £140.6 billion Standard Life Investments is one of the UK's major investment houses and controls around 1. 9 % of the UK stock market (30.06.07).
7. Standard Life Investments was launched as an investment management company in 1998. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Life Investments (Holdings) Limited, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Life plc.
8. Standard Life Investments operates in the UK, Canada, Ireland, Hong Kong and the USA, and has representative offices in Germany, France and South Korea. Standard Life Investments also operates in India through a joint venture, HDFC AMC.
9. Awards
   
   In August 2007 picked up two awards in the Citywire Team All Stars Awards 2007. SLI's UK Equities Team was named 'Citywire Team All Stars Asset Group Winner - UK Equities' and 'Citywire Team All Stars Sector Winner - UK All Companies'. The previous month SLI won the Investment Week Awards' top title - 'Global Group of the Year'.
   
   Standard Life Investments also won a 5 Star Award in the Investment Provider & Packager category at the FTAdviser Online Service Awards 2007 and picked up the 'Active UK Equity Manager of the Year' title at the Pension & Investment Provider Awards (PIPA) 2007.
   
   In addition, SLI won the title of 'Investment Manager of the Year' and 'Specialist Manager of the Year (UK Equities)' at the UK Pensions Awards 2007, while the UK Smaller Companies Fund scooped the 'Best Performing Smaller Companies Fund Award' at the PLC Awards 2007. The company also picked up two 'Best Overall Group Awards' at the Lipper Fund Awards 2007 in the 'Equity Large' and 'UK Equity Large' categories.