Acquisition

RNS Number : 1415X

Standard Life plc

04 May 2016

 

Standard Life plc

4 May 2016

Acquisition of Elevate enhances Standard Life's position as a leading platform provider for advisers

·     Adds over 160,000 customers and assets under administration ("AUA") of £9.8bn

·     Enhances Standard Life's position as a leading platform provider for professional advisers increasing AUA to £36.4bn at 31 March 2016

·     Brings together two award-winning platforms to create one of the largest and fastest growing adviser platform businesses in the UK with net inflows of £5.7bn in 2015

Standard Life plc ("Standard Life") announces that, through its subsidiary Standard Life Savings Limited, it has reached an agreement to acquire the entire issued share capital of AXA Portfolio Services Limited (trading as Elevate) from AXA UK plc. The acquisition will be funded from Standard Life's existing cash resources and is subject to certain conditions being met, including regulatory approvals being obtained.

The acquisition builds on Standard Life's existing strong organic growth in the UK pensions and savings market. The transaction is expected to deliver significant benefits.

The transaction creates one of the UK's largest adviser platform businesses with combined assets under administration of £36.4bn, 350,000 customers, and net asset inflows of £5.7 billion in 2015. It will deliver a number of benefits for customers and Standard Life's shareholders:

·     Bringing together two leading adviser platform businesses. The transaction will create a unified business with additional scale, expertise and resources to support the rapidly growing demand from high quality financial advice businesses across the UK.

·     Broadening access to market leading products and services. Elevate advisers and their clients will have the opportunity to gain access to Standard Life's suite of propositions, including its innovative investment hub, fully flexible SIPP and drawdown capability, as well as a range of investment solutions from Standard Life Investments and Standard Life Wealth.

·     Combining the distribution reach and capabilities of both Standard Life and Elevate. This acquisition expands the nationwide coverage of Standard Life's platform and enhances its ability to attract and support the growth of the UK's most progressive advice businesses. Advisers will also benefit from the technical and consultancy expertise of the enlarged business and the potential to access Standard Life's discounts from some of the UK's leading fund managers.

·     Driving performance and growth. The integration of the two platforms' operations, leveraging their FNZ common platform services, will generate value for Standard Life's shareholders.

Commenting on the acquisition, Barry O'Dwyer, Managing Director Corporate, Retail and Wholesale, Standard Life said:

"I am excited about the opportunity to bring together two award winning adviser platforms at a time when the need for high quality advice has never been greater. We have a track record of successful acquisitions and an integration approach focussed on building a sustainable commercial model for the Elevate platform. Today's announcement demonstrates further progress towards building a simplified and well diversified investment company by strengthening Standard Life's leading position in one of our key growth channels."

Standard Life's David Tiller, Head of Adviser and Wealth Manager Propositions, added:

"This acquisition is a clear sign of our continued commitment to lead the UK adviser platform market. It demonstrates to advisers that, as the market consolidates, supporting their businesses and meeting the evolving needs of their clients is central to the long-term strategy of Standard Life.

"Identifying the right business is the key to success when bringing two propositions together - Elevate was an obvious choice for us. This acquisition combines two leading adviser platforms and will bring clear benefits to existing Standard Life Wrap and Elevate advisers alike."

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Notes to Editors

About Standard Life

·     Since launching in 2006, Standard Life Wrap has helped advisers transform their service to clients and adapt to the changing regulatory landscape. Standard Life Wrap has been adopted by over 1,400 financial advice and wealth management firms and serves over 190,000 customers.

·     Total Standard Life Wrap platform assets under administration are £25.5bn and, in 2015, the platform achieved record net inflows of £4.4bn, up 27% on the previous year.

·     For the second year in a row, Standard Life Wrap was named "Platform of the Year 2015" and voted "Best Platform Provider (AUM over £12.5 billion)" by the adviser community at the prestigious Aberdeen UK Platform Awards. At the same ceremony, Standard Life Wrap won the award for "Best Use of Platform Technology" with partners FNZ, and advisers voted Standard Life Wrap the "Best Platform for Adviser Service".

·     Standard Life is an investment company with over 190 years' experience of helping people invest and manage their money.

·     Standard Life employs around 6,500 people internationally - through businesses in the UK, Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.

·     Around 4.5 million customers and clients across 46 countries trust Standard Life with their financial future. Standard Life is responsible for the administration of £307 billion of their assets, with Standard Life Investments, actively managing £253 billion of these assets globally. Standard Life also supports over 25 million customers through Indian and Chinese associate and joint venture businesses.

·     Standard Life plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange with around 1.2 million individual shareholders and is one of the top 500 companies worldwide, by revenue, as listed in the 2015 Fortune Global 500.

·     Wherever Standard Life operates in the world, it is motivated by a sense of responsibility helping to build a long-term sustainable business. Standard Life is proud to be listed as a leader for corporate sustainability in its industry in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI World and DJSI Europe).

·     You can follow Standard Life on www.twitter.com/StandardLifeplc

All figures in notes to editors are at 31 December 2015 unless stated otherwise

About AXA

·     The AXA Group is a worldwide leader in insurance and asset management, with 166,000 employees serving 103 million clients in 64 countries. In 2015, IFRS revenues amounted to Euro 99.0 billion and IFRS underlying earnings to Euro 5.6 billion. AXA had Euro 1,363 billion assets under management as of December 31, 2015. In 2015 Interbrand ranked AXA the 1st insurance brand worldwide for the 7th consecutive year.

·     In the UK AXA operates through a number of business units including: AXA Wealth, AXA Insurance, AXA PPP healthcare, AXA Ireland and an independent distribution business Bluefin. AXA employs over 10,500 staff in the UK.

·     The AXA ordinary share is listed on compartment A of Euronext Paris under the ticker symbol CS (ISN FR 0000120628 - Bloomberg: CS FP - Reuters: AXAF.PA). AXA's American Depository Share is also quoted on the OTC QX platform under the ticker symbol AXAHY.

·     The AXA Group is included in the main international SRI indexes, such as Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and FTSE4GOOD.

·     It is a founding member of the UN Environment Programme's Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) Principles for Sustainable Insurance and a signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment.

About Elevate

·     The wrap platform, Elevate, supports over 1,500 financial advice and wealth management firms in managing SIPPs, ISAs and other investments. It serves over 160,000 customers, providing access to over 5,000 funds from over 130 fund managers. Elevate has £9.8bn of assets under administration and has consistently delivered gross inflows in excess of £2bn p.a. since 2010.

·     Elevate offers the 'superclean' share classes for Architas funds, which will also be added to the Standard Life platform to ensure this preferential pricing for Architas funds is consistent for advisers.

·     The platform was voted "Best Platform Provider (AUM up to £12.5 billion)" by advisers at the Aberdeen UK Platform Awards 2015. Elevate also won the Aberdeen "Platform of the Year" award in 2013.

 

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