Standard Life Aberdeen Half Yearly. nb part 1 of 4

[idpickering]

Building on our resilience

· Assets under management and administration up 5% to £577.5bn with assets on our platforms up 11% to £66.0bn

· Net outflows have reduced and remain concentrated in a small number of strategies with gross inflows well diversified

· Improvement in investment performance with 65% (FY 2018: 50%) of AUM above benchmark over three years

· Delivery of cost efficiencies on track with actions taken to date to deliver £234m of the £350m per annum targeted

· IFRS profit after tax of £636m, benefiting from sale of 6.21% of HDFC Life, with adjusted profit before tax of £280m

· Adjusted diluted EPS up to 8.9p (H1 2018: 8.2p)

· Unchanged interim dividend of 7.3p

And later;

Delivering returns to shareholders

The Board has declared an unchanged interim dividend of 7.3p per share (H1 2018: 7.3p). This will be paid on 24 September 2019 to shareholders on the register at close of business on 16 August 2019.

As outlined in the Annual Report and Accounts 2018, it is the Board's current intention that the total annual dividend per share will be held at the 2018 level of 21.6p while the business is restructured, cost synergies are delivered and future financial performance confirms the sustainability of this level of distribution and provides line of sight to its future growth.

https://www.investegate.co.uk/standard- ... 01011642I/

[idpickering]

I hold these, and am not impressed with these results. Sp down over 4% as I type. The held dividend doesn’t help either.

Ian,

[blobby]

Hi Ian,

Can you say why you are not impressed please. The held dividend was already known about.

[monabri]

"Hyp-wise" it could have been worse - the dividend has been maintained - it could have been cut. Let's hope they can hold to the intention to hold the annual dividend pending improvements.

The market is reacting to the EPS figure (I guess) and

"Board's current intention that the total annual dividend per share will be held at the 2018 level of 21.6p while the business is restructured, cost synergies are delivered and future financial performance confirms the sustainability of this level of distribution and provides line of sight to its future growth

[idpickering]

Hi Ian,

Can you say why you are not impressed please. The held dividend was already known about.

That's a fair comment. Nothing specific tbh, just a gut feeling. It seems I'm not alone feeling like this with the sp down over 6% currently. I shall continue to hold, but won't be buying any more of their shares. It takes time to blend two mammoth companies I guess. I'm willing to let the managers do their job. I will give them that time.

Ian.

[vrdiver]

Funnily enough, they've just popped up as the first candidate for a top-up in my HYPTUSS!

I'm tempted to add, based on the assumption that the management will get the merger sorted, so the high dividend yield currently on offer is an opportunity, rather than a sign of impending doom.

Of course, I could be wrong and SLA is about to reveal a plethora of problems, but SI and all that...

VRD