Standard Life today unveiled forecast-beating sales results for the start of its first full financial year as a listed company.
The insurer, which demutualised last July, revealed worldwide sales up 40 per cent to £3.92 billion for the three months to the end of March, far higher than already strong £3.66 billion expected by analysts.
It reported Irish sales up 92 per cent to €191 million in the first three months of 2007 compared to the first quarter last year.
The company said it was successfully seeing off competition from rivals in the self-invested personal pension market, with individual sales of the "do-it-yourself" policies soaring by 117 per cent to £1.23 billion.
Standard Life's Europe-wide business performed well, kicking off the year with a 53 per cent rise in sales to £249 million, although the company's Canadian operations saw a 15 per cent decline.
The insurer said 2006 comparisons for its Canadian business were skewed by a group annuity contract worth £61 million sold in the first quarter last year, but sales were still only 2 per cent up when this was taken into account amid challenging market conditions, according to Standard Life.