Standard Life share price: Company to shut down insurance division in Singapore

Standard Life Plc (LON:SL), the Edinburgh-based insurer and asset manager, today announced that it was closing its insurance division in Singapore. In a statement to the London Stock Exchange the company said that the closure was subject to regulatory approval, but that it was no longer accepting new applications or contributions to existing plans.

The company also said that it would be contacting all customers in Singapore with an in-force plan to offer them a closure value, which will be the higher of two options: either the total of all contributions received by Standard Life and any bonus allocation plus an eight percent enhancement paid into the plan, or the plan value plus an eight percent enhancement.
Standard Life expects to incur a non-operating loss of about £45 million from the closure, which it said would be reported within its half-year results on August 4, 2015, alongside the gain on the sale of its Canadian operations of approximately £1.1 billion.
In today’s trading, Standard Life shares were down 0.2 percent at 476.92p, as of 13:36 BST. The stock has fallen 2.5 percent since the start of the year, trimming the company’s market capitalisation to £9.4 billion.
The 19 analysts offering 12 month price targets for Standard Life have a median target of 480.00p, with a high estimate of 537.78p and a low estimate of 313.00p. As of June 22, 2015, the consensus forecast amongst 22 polled investment analysts covering Standard Life had it that investors should hold their position in the company. This consensus estimate has been maintained sinceDecember 09, 2014, when the sentiment of investment analysts deteriorated from “outperform”.
As of 15:02 BST, Thursday, 25 June, Standard Life Plc share price is 474.60p.