Standard Life’s share price won’t recover simply because Standard Life is no longer quoted, instead it is now part of Phoenix Group and has been since September 2018.
Prior to that the fund manager had merged with its local rival Aberdeen who retained the Standard Life brand name until 2021, when it also sold that to Phoenix Group.
Phoenix Group was specifically set up to become a consolidator in the retirement and longterm savings space and it is now one of the biggest providers in these areas in the UK.
Phoenix Group’s share price has not performed well, however. And over the last decade, it has fallen by almost -40.00%.
That compares to a decline of -5.80% at Aviva and -15.60% at Legal & General, over the time frame.
Phoenix Group has the dubious distinction of having the highest dividend yield in the FTSE 100 at 10.29%.
Though to be fair it does have a record of continuous dividend payments and dividend maintenance.
Phoenix can also point to an 8-year track record of dividend growth. however its 10- year dividend growth rate of just +2.78% is nothing to write home about.
Phoenix Group might suit adventurous income investors, with a diversified portfolio or those betting on recovery in the pensions and savings arena.
When it last reported in September 2024, the business was generating operating-cash-flow of £64.0 million and adjusted operating profits of £360.0 million. It had £289.0 billion of assets under management for its 12.0 million customers.
However, despite this the group reported a loss of -£646.0 million thanks to additional solvency provisions, what it called elevated non-operational costs, and the accounting impact of the buyout of its own internal pensions scheme.
The bulk of these may well be one-off items, driven by accounting prudence, and thus are not cash items, but it’s still a significant loss however you dice it.
That probably goes some way to explain why Phoenix Group is under-owned by institutional investors relative to its insurance sector peers, according to broker UBS, who recently highlighted a preference for European names like AXA and Aegon among institutions.
The Swiss bank downgraded Phoenix Group to neutral from buy, in October and cut its price target to 530p from 610p as it did so.
The shares currently trade at 520p and have struggled to break through 530p. Phoenix Group will report Full-Year 2024 results on March 17th
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