Standard Life Aberdeen PLC (LON:SLA) has reduced its dividend as more funds flowed out of the business in 2020.
The FTSE 100 insurer is in the middle of a restructuring programme that saw the Standard Life name sold to Phoenix earlier this month with a new name for the whole business to be announced later this year, it said..
Net outflows were £3.1bn in the year to end-December 2020, compared with £17.4bn in the previous year, with £535bn of funds under management at the year-end against £545bn.
Stephen Bird, chief executive, said it is slowing the tide of outflows.
“We have seen growing momentum in the second half of 2020 with improved investment performance and flows which represent an inflection point as we pull out of the post-merger era,” he said in a statement.
The company is also restructuring around three business areas of investments; adviser and personal, added Bird.
Fee-based revenues in 2020 fell by 13% to £1.43bn, while underlying profits dropped by 17% to £487mln as costs rose.
The final dividend is 7.3p making 14.6p for the year compared with 21.6p in 2019. Standard Life said the dividend will be maintained at this level until it is covered at least 1.5 times by adjusted capital generation after which it will grow again.
Bird added that individual strategies for each of the three divisions should mean SLA can increase revenues again and he is targeting high single-digit three-year revenue growth over the period to 2023.