Standard Life Investments is to widen its distribution footprint in Asia, Canada and the US following a deal between its Edinburgh-based parent
company – the insurer Standard Life – and Canada’s Manulife.
The “global collaboration agreement” is expected to more than treble Standard Life Investments’ £3.3 billion (€4.1 billion) assets under management distributed by Manulife within three years.
The agreement forms part of a broader deal that sees Standard Life selling its Canadian asset management and other Canadian business lines for £2.2 billion to a subsidiary of Toronto-based Manulife Financial Corporation.
Long-term savings and retirement, individual and group insurance and investment management businesses are included in the sale, while Standard Life will offer Manulife funds to the UK retail market as part of the collaboration agreement, and also plans to expand when the sale is complete by adding a new office in Toronto to serve institutional clients locally.
Keith Skeoch, chief executive officer of Standard Life Investments, says: “The sale and new global collaboration agreement represent the next chapter in Standard Life Investments’ continuing growth story.
“The collaboration is a natural extension of our existing strategy where we have established a range of global strategic partnerships and relationships.”
Skeoch says that the partnership with Manulife will provide new opportunities for Standard Life Investments, by strengthening its profit margin and enhancing its distribution capabilities with financial services provider John Hancock, the US unit of Manulife.
Earlier this year, Standard Life Investments’ acquired Ignis Asset Management.
Standard Life Investments has £195.1 billion assets under management and saw a positive performance in the first half of 2014, with a 9% rise in pre-tax profits, and has recorded a six-fold increase in third-party assets under management over the past ten years.
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