STANDARD LIFE yesterday shrugged off a near 50% decline in sales of individual pensions in the first nine months of the year as it continued to push its higher-margin products - a key part of its plans to float on the stock market in 2006, according to this morning's papers.
The one-time bread and butter of insurance companies delivered just £101m of revenues in the period to the end of September, down from more than £190m last year, says the Scotsman. Meanwhile, the new self-invested personal pension products (Sipps) more than trebled sales to £88m. The group said its third quarter had been tougher than the nine months as a whole, as price competition intensified. Worldwide insurance revenues fell 7% in the three months, compared with a 5% rise over the longer period. Finance director Alison Reed - who joined from Marks & Spencer in the summer - said s...
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