Standard Life 2009 profit beats forecasts

Its fast-growing Asian business turned to a profit of 6 million pounds from a loss of 35 million a year ago.

UK-focussed Standard Life, seeking to overcome the impact of poor market conditions and weak confidence on its core self-invested personal pension (SIPP) product, moved to set a further savings target of 100 million pounds by 2012.

Standard Life said a year ago it aimed to cut costs by 75 million pounds by the end of 2010 and the insurer said on Wednesday it had already achieved 47 million of that, as it restructures customer service operations.

Last month Standard Life posted a better-than-expected 7 percent drop in 2009 sales, as a market recovery during the second half helped soften the impact of crisis-hit UK consumers cutting back on savings.

The insurer will pay a dividend of 12.2p.

At 9:11 a.m. British time, the stock was up 0.1 percent at 204.4p, broadly in line with the FTSE 100 index. Standard Life shares have dropped more than 5 percent since the start of 2010, underperforming the European sector by almost 10 percent.

The shares trade at a 36 percent discount to embedded value, according to analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, well below peers in a UK sector already trading at an average discount of 15 percent.

The insurer declined to comment on whether it is considering a sale for its healthcare business, valued at around 200 million pounds.

(Editing by Hans Peters and David Holmes)