Louise Armitstead in the Telegraph writes .. Standard Life has become the first Scottish company to warn that it will have to move substantial business operations south of the border in the event of a Yes vote in the independence referendum.
Confirming The Daily Telegraph’s story last week, the financial services giant, which employs 5,000 people in Scotland and has six million customers, has warned that uncertainties over currency, taxation and membership of the EU pose too much of a risk to its business.
David Nish, chief executive, said he has “started work to establish additional registered companies to operate outside Scotland, into which we could transfer parts of our operations if necessary.”
As we suggested last week, the key is its almost-£100bn pension fund business which stands to lose UK tax relief from HMRC. Standard Life has issued the warning along side its full year results which include a 12pc rise in assets under administration to £244.2bn but a 13pc drop in operating profits to £751m. The final dividend is up 8pc to 10.58p. The results come in eight parts. We’ll have the analysis online here