Standard Life Shares

ReportInvestor

Well while we wait for some good news, we could always celebrate getting past September 10th unscathed .

HBOS research

"It's true - sell in May and go away, don't come back 'til St Leger Day" can be a way to make money on the London stockmarket.

But the Times on September 9th urged caution

"No racing certainties in the months ahead."

ReportInvestor

Credit Suisse begins its coverage of Standard Life with an "underperform" rating and a 276p target price

Until or unless the September 27 interim results tell us anything new, are we entering a period of drift during which the City realises that many potential sellers are sitting tight for their bonus shares next summer?

Another dull day with a fall to 265.5p but at least Standard outperformed the FTSE this time - Yahoo chart

ReportInvestor

ReportInvestor wrote:

All companies would like to "manage the market" in this way - but not all are able! Will Standard Life keep it up?

Oh crickey.

We could probably do without this.

Standard Life finance director to go in board shake-up

Peter Lockie speaks of "evidence of clear instability at the group" e.g. the issue of the Chairman is still unresolved, since Sir Brian Stewart has not yet declared his future intentions (he was originally a brewer and still chairs fellow FTSE100 company Scottish & Newcastle which is technically against the Higgs recommendations).

FT Investor

"........Ms Reed, who joined Standard Life last year after 21 years at Marks and Spencer, could tell the market as soon as December that she is ready to leave the company but that she will stay on while a successor is found.

Sandie Crombie, Standard Life’s chief executive, has signalled that a shake-up in the executive team was likely to follow the demutualisationas his focus returned to building the business going forwards.

Ms Reed was one of a number of outside directors brought in to help Standard Life prepare for its London listing and was charged with driving through the necessary accounting changes, including introducing new standards and measuring profitability for the first time.

Sir Brian Stewart, chairman since July 2003, is also expected to be among those leaving Standard Life.

Sir Brian, who also chairs Scottish & Newcastle, the FTSE 100 brewer, pledged to continue as chairman only until the insurer was “fully established as a publicly listed company”.

The UK’s guidelines on corporate governance frown upon an individual holding the chairmanship of more than one FTSE 100 company........."

Yahoo - But the market didn't seem to mind the news at all

bugbod

From the Yahoo page:
The Edinburgh-based insurer is set to announce its interim results next week.

Might as well wait for that then

Yorkshireman_3

ReportInvestor wrote:

Oh crickey.

We could probably do without this.

Standard Life finance director to go in board shake-up

Peter Lockie speaks of "evidence of clear instability at the group" e.g. the issue of the Chairman is still unresolved, since Sir Brian Stewart has not yet declared his future intentions (he was originally a brewer and still chairs fellow FTSE100 company Scottish & Newcastle which is technically against the Higgs recommendations).

FT Investor

"........Ms Reed, who joined Standard Life last year after 21 years at Marks and Spencer, could tell the market as soon as December that she is ready to leave the company but that she will stay on while a successor is found.

Sandie Crombie, Standard Life’s chief executive, has signalled that a shake-up in the executive team was likely to follow the demutualisationas his focus returned to building the business going forwards.

Ms Reed was one of a number of outside directors brought in to help Standard Life prepare for its London listing and was charged with driving through the necessary accounting changes, including introducing new standards and measuring profitability for the first time.

Sir Brian Stewart, chairman since July 2003, is also expected to be among those leaving Standard Life.

Sir Brian, who also chairs Scottish & Newcastle, the FTSE 100 brewer, pledged to continue as chairman only until the insurer was “fully established as a publicly listed company”.

The UK’s guidelines on corporate governance frown upon an individual holding the chairmanship of more than one FTSE 100 company........."

Yahoo - But the market didn't seem to mind the news at all

Emm sounds like rats leaving sinkin ship

---

trouble is they dont realise tht the ship is one of the best in the fleet silly sods

epninety

FYI

Bear Stearns starts Standard Life on "underperform"

Reuters

"...it views Standard Life shares as overvalued compared to the rest of the U.K. life insurance sector..."

ReportInvestor

Ah well, I suppose we've all held on so far .

So I guess we're all as nervous as each other about the results due out tomorrow (Wednesday).

Nothing we can do about it now. Let's hope for the best.

At least the FTSE was firm today [& especially at the close], even if Standard (closing at 271p) didn't quite manage to match it.

bugbod

ReportInvestor wrote:

Ah well, I suppose we've all held on so far .

So I guess we're all as nervous as each other about the results due out tomorrow (Wednesday).

Nothing we can do about it now. Let's hope for the best.

I won't bother looking for them because I probably won't understand.
I'll just come here for the verdict.:beer:

ReportInvestor

Profits come in significantly below analysts' expectations

Standard has been hit by higher than expected with profits policy redemptions post demutualisation. One analyst who is neutral on the shares says the issue is whether these redemptions are the thin end of the wedge. Standard increased its provisions for these by £100m :eek: - hitting our profits for six.

So new business good; old business, worryingly, not so good.

Initially down 6p in an otherwise strongly rising market. It's hard to know what to do. At least it's picked up to 3.5p off after the initial markdown.

Standard v FTSE comparision chart

Embedded value per share is 246p (very slightly lower than suggested earlier on our thread).

But the theoretical 13p per share bonus in July 2007 looks less secure now.

What I hate about this company is how, still, we can't compare past and present figures. This is a throwback to its mutual past when it decreed that there was no need to produce a profit figure in the annual accounts :rolleyes: . Even now we don't have the 2005 H1 profit figure to hand, just the full year's profits. So it's not possible for analysts to assess the precise pace of any turnaround .

gt94sss2

• Worldwide insurance PVNBP1 sales of £5,763m (Full Year 2005:£9,367m), worldwide insurance APE2 sales up 19% to £745m (six months to June 2005: £624m)

• Group new business contribution before tax of £91m (FY 2005: £33m), PVNBP margin up to 1.6% (FY 2005: 0.4%)

• EEV3 operating profit before tax of £206m (FY 2005: £395m), after a £100m increase in lapse provisions

• IFRS4 underlying profit before tax of £243m (FY 2005: £145m)

• Group EEV before IPO5 proceeds up 3% to £3,875m (31 December 2005: £3,744m), Group EEV including IPO proceeds per share of 246p (31 December 2005: 239p)

• Standard Life Investments funds under management £123.4bn (31 December 2005: £118.8bn)

Full Statement: Half Year Results


Regards
Sunil