# Standard Life (SDLF.LSE)

Canonical: https://gigainvestors.com/s/SDLF.LSE

Analysis as of: 2026-10-16T07:35:37.316Z. Financial observations: FY2015–FY2025.

Listing currency: GBX. Reporting currency: GBP.

## Verdict

Not a wonderful business

Quality tests for Buy: not passed (profit record: fail; earnings resilience is evidence only). Published buy qualification: no.

Share price: GBX 895.50 per share; close as of 2026-10-15.

## Checklist

### understandable: fail

- positive earnings in fewer than 8 of 10 years

- Financial history: 10 years

- Profitable years in the last ten: 4

- Required profitable years: 8

Chart: Net income; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: GBP -101M

- FY2017: GBP -27M

- FY2018: GBP 379M

- FY2019: GBP 85M

- FY2020: GBP 798M

- FY2021: GBP -837M

- FY2022: GBP -2.7B

- FY2023: GBP 56M

- FY2024: GBP -1.1B

- FY2025: GBP -443M

### moat: fail

- Common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity and common earnings

- median return on common equity below threshold

- Bank / P&C ROTE, median of available years: -1.9%

- Required median return: 10.0%

- Return uses tangible common equity: No

- Bank ROTE, second-lowest year: -63.9%

- Years with reported combined ratio: 0

Chart: Return on common equity; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: -3.0%

- FY2017: -0.9%

- FY2018: 6.7%

- FY2019: 1.6%

- FY2020: 10.6%

- FY2021: -14.4%

- FY2022: -73.5%

- FY2023: 1.9%

- FY2024: -63.9%

- FY2025: -60.0%

### economics: fail

- Common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity and common earnings

- book value per share plus dividends compounded below 7% annually

- Book value per share + reinvested dividends, annualized return: 2.6%

- Book return interval: 10 years

- Starting book value per share: GBP 2.43

- Ending book value per share: GBP 0.74

Chart: Annual book + dividend return; fiscal year observations.

- FY2016: 42.1%

- FY2017: 0.5%

- FY2018: 87.5%

- FY2019: 37.4%

- FY2020: -10.3%

- FY2021: 1.2%

- FY2022: -27.8%

- FY2023: -5.5%

- FY2024: -25.2%

- FY2025: -24.4%

### management: fail

- Common book per share

- Parent-total proxy for preferred equity and common earnings

- book per share gain below retained common earnings per share

- Diluted shares, 10-year annual growth: 0.0%

- Diluted shares, 5-year annual growth: -3.7%

- Share growth excluding flagged crisis recapitalisations: 0.0%

- Five-year share growth excluding flagged crisis recapitalisations: -3.7%

- Flagged crisis recapitalisations: 0

- Book value created per share: GBP -1.70

- Earnings retained per share after dividends and buybacks: GBP -7.96

### accounting: pass

- Financial accounting warning count: 0

- Known restatement years: 0

## Holders

## Price story

Up 97% since Oct 2023 · "Standard Life continues cost-cutting and eyes £800m ‘synergies’ from Aegon deal" (uk.finance.yahoo.com, Sep 2026) · net income GBP -443M

Story as of 2026-10-16T10:00:05.672Z; price observation 2026-10-15.

### Net income · FY2025

net income GBP -443M; source https://filings.xbrl.org/2138001P49OLAEU33T68/2025-12-31/ESEF/GB/0/2138001P49OLAEU33T68-2025-12-31/reports/2138001P49OLAEU33T68-2025-12-31-T01.xhtml; observed 2026-03-24.

- FY2016: GBP -101M 

- FY2017: GBP -27M 

- FY2018: GBP 379M 

- FY2019: GBP 85M 

- FY2020: GBP 798M 

- FY2021: GBP -837M 

- FY2022: GBP -2.7B 

- FY2023: GBP 56M 

- FY2024: GBP -1.1B 

- FY2025: GBP -443M 

## Owner memo

Memo as of 2026-10-16T08:06:05.509Z.

### How it makes money

Operates in insurance life; annual sales are GBP 37.3 billion.

- Source: https://filings.xbrl.org/2138001P49OLAEU33T68/2025-12-31/ESEF/GB/0/2138001P49OLAEU33T68-2025-12-31/reports/2138001P49OLAEU33T68-2025-12-31-T01.xhtml (filed 2026-03-24); FY2025: revenue 37251000000.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); SDLF.LSE: Standard Life plc operates in the long-term savings and retirement business in Europe. It operates through Retirement Solutions, Pensions & Savings, With-Profits, and Europe & Other segments. The company offers defined contribution workplace pensions, retail savings for retirement, international bonds, and legacy savings and pension products; defined benefit pension income, income drawdown and lifetime annuities, fixed-term annuities, and smoothed managed funds. It also offers new and in-force individual annuity and pension risk transfer contracts written within shareholder funds; U.K. individual annuity; workplace pensions and self-invested personal pensions; new and in-force insurance and investment unit-linked products; and protection products. The company offers its products under the Standard Life, SunLife, Phoenix Life, Phoenix Wealth, Phoenix Corporate Investment Services, and ReAssure brands. Standard Life plc was formerly known as Phoenix Group Holdings plc and changed its name to Standard Life plc in February 2026. The company was founded in 1782 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

### Why customers stay

It lost 1.9% on shareholders’ money, excluding intangible assets.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-24); 10-year return on tangible equity observations [[2016,-0.030303030303030304],[2017,-0.00855784469096672],[2018,0.06702033598585323],[2019,0.01610153438151165],[2020,0.10596202363563936],[2021,-0.14393809114359415],[2022,-0.7352226720647773],[2023,0.018729096989966554],[2024,-0.6385471587580551],[2025,-0.6002710027100271]]; median -0.019430437496998514. ROIC follows the displayed moat series; financial companies use return on tangible equity.

### Where the cash goes

Paid dividends in 10 of 10 years; bought back GBP 9 million of shares.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-24); Dividend observations: [[2016,126000000],[2017,193000000],[2018,262000000],[2019,338000000],[2020,403000000],[2021,482000000],[2022,496000000],[2023,520000000],[2024,533000000],[2025,548000000]]. Zero only counted when supported by a complete cash-flow statement.

- Source: https://filings.xbrl.org/2138001P49OLAEU33T68/2025-12-31/ESEF/GB/0/2138001P49OLAEU33T68-2025-12-31/reports/2138001P49OLAEU33T68-2025-12-31-T01.xhtml (filed 2026-03-24); FY2025: cash repurchases 9000000 GBP.

### Are managers owners

Insiders own 15% of the company.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-10-16); SDLF.LSE SharesStats.PercentInsiders = 15.031 percentage points; cache date 2026-10-16.

### What the price says

The price is 0.2 times annual sales; cash earnings are negative.

- Source: https://eodhd.com/financial-apis/stock-etfs-fundamental-data-feeds/ (filed 2026-03-24); Closing price 895.5 GBX; reporting-to-trading FX 100; FY2025 annual sales per share 37.192317960721574; price multiple 0.24077552814689537. FY2025 cash earnings/share -0.4371103273255458. Closing-price date 2026-10-15.

## Monthly share-price history (GBX per share)

- 2016-10: GBX 656.91 per share

- 2016-11: GBX 637.57 per share

- 2016-12: GBX 660.95 per share

- 2017-01: GBX 676.69 per share

- 2017-02: GBX 690.63 per share

- 2017-03: GBX 671.74 per share

- 2017-04: GBX 664.55 per share

- 2017-05: GBX 678.49 per share

- 2017-06: GBX 696.02 per share

- 2017-07: GBX 685.68 per share

- 2017-08: GBX 703.67 per share

- 2017-09: GBX 679.84 per share

- 2017-10: GBX 680.74 per share

- 2017-11: GBX 686.13 per share

- 2017-12: GBX 703.22 per share

- 2018-01: GBX 687.03 per share

- 2018-02: GBX 706.37 per share

- 2018-03: GBX 686.58 per share

- 2018-04: GBX 707.71 per share

- 2018-05: GBX 696.92 per share

- 2018-06: GBX 677.00 per share

- 2018-07: GBX 689.00 per share

- 2018-08: GBX 710.00 per share

- 2018-09: GBX 676.00 per share

- 2018-10: GBX 602.50 per share

- 2018-11: GBX 599.50 per share

- 2018-12: GBX 563.40 per share

- 2019-01: GBX 634.80 per share

- 2019-02: GBX 699.00 per share

- 2019-03: GBX 677.50 per share

- 2019-04: GBX 722.50 per share

- 2019-05: GBX 671.10 per share

- 2019-06: GBX 709.00 per share

- 2019-07: GBX 695.60 per share

- 2019-08: GBX 647.00 per share

- 2019-09: GBX 691.30 per share

- 2019-10: GBX 704.20 per share

- 2019-11: GBX 745.50 per share

- 2019-12: GBX 749.00 per share

- 2020-01: GBX 758.00 per share

- 2020-02: GBX 691.20 per share

- 2020-03: GBX 626.60 per share

- 2020-04: GBX 601.00 per share

- 2020-05: GBX 616.20 per share

- 2020-06: GBX 644.00 per share

- 2020-07: GBX 658.60 per share

- 2020-08: GBX 692.00 per share

- 2020-09: GBX 688.20 per share

- 2020-10: GBX 662.40 per share

- 2020-11: GBX 716.80 per share

- 2020-12: GBX 700.60 per share

- 2021-01: GBX 674.80 per share

- 2021-02: GBX 710.00 per share

- 2021-03: GBX 734.20 per share

- 2021-04: GBX 711.40 per share

- 2021-05: GBX 735.60 per share

- 2021-06: GBX 676.40 per share

- 2021-07: GBX 679.40 per share

- 2021-08: GBX 623.40 per share

- 2021-09: GBX 645.60 per share

- 2021-10: GBX 656.60 per share

- 2021-11: GBX 640.20 per share

- 2021-12: GBX 653.20 per share

- 2022-01: GBX 660.20 per share

- 2022-02: GBX 618.60 per share

- 2022-03: GBX 614.00 per share

- 2022-04: GBX 609.00 per share

- 2022-05: GBX 637.60 per share

- 2022-06: GBX 590.40 per share

- 2022-07: GBX 643.80 per share

- 2022-08: GBX 602.40 per share

- 2022-09: GBX 526.80 per share

- 2022-10: GBX 542.40 per share

- 2022-11: GBX 588.80 per share

- 2022-12: GBX 608.60 per share

- 2023-01: GBX 640.80 per share

- 2023-02: GBX 633.40 per share

- 2023-03: GBX 546.40 per share

- 2023-04: GBX 591.80 per share

- 2023-05: GBX 552.40 per share

- 2023-06: GBX 531.80 per share

- 2023-07: GBX 550.20 per share

- 2023-08: GBX 521.00 per share

- 2023-09: GBX 482.20 per share

- 2023-10: GBX 453.80 per share

- 2023-11: GBX 465.20 per share

- 2023-12: GBX 535.20 per share

- 2024-01: GBX 505.40 per share

- 2024-02: GBX 497.30 per share

- 2024-03: GBX 552.60 per share

- 2024-04: GBX 489.80 per share

- 2024-05: GBX 496.20 per share

- 2024-06: GBX 521.50 per share

- 2024-07: GBX 547.00 per share

- 2024-08: GBX 565.50 per share

- 2024-09: GBX 559.50 per share

- 2024-10: GBX 491.20 per share

- 2024-11: GBX 514.00 per share

- 2024-12: GBX 510.00 per share

- 2025-01: GBX 522.50 per share

- 2025-02: GBX 518.00 per share

- 2025-03: GBX 571.50 per share

- 2025-04: GBX 597.50 per share

- 2025-05: GBX 634.00 per share

- 2025-06: GBX 658.50 per share

- 2025-07: GBX 664.00 per share

- 2025-08: GBX 681.50 per share

- 2025-09: GBX 643.50 per share

- 2025-10: GBX 674.00 per share

- 2025-11: GBX 696.00 per share

- 2025-12: GBX 737.00 per share

- 2026-01: GBX 739.50 per share

- 2026-02: GBX 767.00 per share

- 2026-03: GBX 678.50 per share

- 2026-04: GBX 756.00 per share

- 2026-05: GBX 776.00 per share

- 2026-06: GBX 833.00 per share

- 2026-07: GBX 923.00 per share

- 2026-08: GBX 940.00 per share

- 2026-09: GBX 884.50 per share

- 2026-10: GBX 876.00 per share

## Annual estimated value (GBX per share)

- FY2016: low GBX 94.53 per share, central GBX 108.15 per share, high GBX 126.36 per share

- FY2017: low GBX 83.89 per share, central GBX 95.69 per share, high GBX 111.34 per share

- FY2018: low GBX 69.88 per share, central GBX 79.68 per share, high GBX 92.66 per share

- FY2019: low GBX 232.98 per share, central GBX 260.28 per share, high GBX 294.83 per share

- FY2020: low GBX 458.60 per share, central GBX 531.64 per share, high GBX 632.37 per share

- FY2021: low GBX 426.27 per share, central GBX 494.16 per share, high GBX 587.78 per share

- FY2022: low GBX 147.22 per share, central GBX 161.94 per share, high GBX 179.94 per share

- FY2023: low GBX 24.22 per share, central GBX 27.02 per share, high GBX 30.55 per share

Historical values use today's bond yield for every fiscal year

Historical values use today's FX rate into trading currency for every fiscal year

Historical values use current restated fundamentals and current commodity classification; they are not point-in-time estimates

## Sources

[Original ESEF filing](https://filings.xbrl.org/2138001P49OLAEU33T68/2025-12-31/ESEF/GB/0/2138001P49OLAEU33T68-2025-12-31/reports/2138001P49OLAEU33T68-2025-12-31-T01.xhtml); period 2025-12-31, filed 2026-03-24.

Estimates depend on assumptions and are not guarantees or investment advice. Underlying data remains subject to its source licenses; public reading does not grant bulk redistribution rights.