Standard Life declared pre-tax profits before tax up 44 per cent from £182 million for the six months to 30 June 2010 to £262 million during the same period this year.

The group declared a rise in the profitability of its UK business from £76 million in 2010, to £87 million in 2011 while its Canadian division rose from £62 million to £103 million, concluding a successful six months.

Standard Life’s performance for its Canadian division is particularly noteworthy, given the £68 million of outflows witnessed in its mutual funds operation and the £116 million of outflows in its Canadian savings and retirement subsidiary.

The international business declared a drop in the profitability of its wholly owned business from £28 million to just £19 million. The company also failed to make a profit from its international joint ventures.

The company attributed this to the increase in acquisition expenses in line with the higher new business volumes in Ireland and in Hong Kong.

There was also a £9 million increase in maintenance expenses that the group attributed to the growth of its back book in the region.

In the group’s much-publicised UK wrap business, the insurer declared fee-based revenue up by 12 per cent due to higher fee business and the impact of recently acquired companies.

Wrap assets are up 73 per cent on the same six-month period a year ago. However, the group’s UK retail division was unable to completely stop the outflows, which it has recently witnessed.

Its savings and investments arm declared outflows of £285 million (albeit down from £317 million a year ago).

Standard Life Investments saw a considerable drop in inflows from institutional and wholesale investors down from £4.745 billion in 2010 to just £2.941 billion in 2011.

This was partly explained by Standard Life Investments’ withdrawal from constant net asset value money market funds.

The company’s UK annuity business was hit significantly, though, with outflows worsening as a result of lower new business sales. The group declared outflows for the annuities and protection division of £334 million – worse than the £272 million declared a year ago.

New business volumes in the UK annuity division were down from £210 million in the six months to the end of June 2010 to just £148 million during the same period this year.

The financial strength of the group remains strong, however. Standard and Poor’s currently rates it as A+ Stable while Standard Life Canada has a separate A+ Stable rating – upgraded from A Stable earlier this year.

Announcing today’s results, David Nish, chief executive of Standard Life, said the group was on track to achieve its goals of operational and financial improvement.

He explained, ‘We have growth assets under administration to £200 billion and increased fee-based revenues by 14 per cent. ‘We are investing to strengthen our market positions and have launched a number of innovative proposition to response to the needs of our customers.’