Standard Life enjoys 20% rise

Standard Life's core life and pensions business in the Republic rose by 20 per cent in the last year, to £20 million, the company said yesterday. New effective income - all annual premiums and 10 per cent of single premiums received - including income from investments for the period was £35 million, an increase of 3 per cent.

The company said it had not included an extra £8 million in exceptional business, brought in over three days last Easter, because most of the 38,000 new policy-holders appeared to have been motivated by industry rumours that Standard Life would soon demutualise.

"Once again we experienced a healthy spread of business in our core life and pensions business. There is a growing maturity among Irish workers towards pensions planning and the need to supplement their income for retirement," said Standard Life's general manager for the Republic, Mr Alan Ashe.

He said the company now had an Irish market share of 8.5 per cent, on a recurring business basis, placing it comfortably within the top five companies in the life and pensions sector.

Mr Ashe said the euro would bring fundamental change to investment funds, and many Irish managers would now invest in shares in other euro zone countries with no currency risk.

"This will obviously have consequences for Irish plcs who will need to actively market themselves to overseas fund managers," he added.

Mr Ashe also predicted a shakeout in the Irish financial services sector, adding that Standard Life was interested in growth through acquisitions, but regarded the current market as "very pricey".

"I think there's a danger of over-priced investment," he said.

The firm said annual premium for company pensions accounted for £7 million in 1998, a slight drop on the £7.2 million in 1997. Single premiums in this area increased by 4.3 per cent to £5.75 million.

In personal pensions, annual premiums were up slightly, to £2.6 million from £2.4 million. Single premiums also climbed only marginally, to £6.3 million from £6.2 million.

The company employs 260 people in seven locations around the Republic.