Mutual life assurer Standard Life reported a 4 per cent fall in first-quarter sales today as the company continued to restructure its business ahead of a stock market listing.
Sales in its UK life and pensions business were flat at £229 million compared to £227 million in the first quarter of 2004. Mortgage sales at Standard Life Bank slumped to 622 million from 979 million last year.
It said worldwide new business sales for the first three months of this year were £317 million ($607 million), compared to £329 million in the same period in 2004.
The group is overhauling its life and pensions business to boost returns ahead of demutualisation, expected in 2006.
Although progress towards that goal had been made, there is more still to do, group chief executive Sandy Crombie said. The company's plan remains to "write less business in the UK in 2005 than we did in 2004 as we seek out more profitable segments of the market," he added.
