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Standard Life plc - Annual Report and Accounts 2007
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Looking back on 2007

2007 was a record-breaking year for our overall life and pensions sales at Group level and third party funds at Standard Life Investments. The strength of our life and pensions businesses in the UK, Europe and Canada, and of the joint ventures in Asia Pacific show our international reach and capability. It's an important part of our strategy to design innovative savings and pensions products, supported by first class service, to distribute them as efficiently as possible, to have them perform well, and to make good returns for our shareholders. That is what we are about.

While we dealt with difficult market conditions, we also continued to grow in experience as a plc. We're still learning and will keep improving the way we do things. For example, with the pace of change in our industry being so high, we recognise the need to help our business leaders and teams understand and exploit this fluidity. We also need to sharpen accountability, improve our processes and accelerate the pace of decision-taking within the business. We will continue to strive to become more cost-efficient by eliminating bureaucracy and improving our business processes.

We have around 7 million customers putting their trust in us. Although it was a disappointing year for stock markets, it was a good year for us in terms of our financial performance. In this Annual Report and Accounts we report on the achievement of our financial and efficiency targets for 2007. We also report an increase in EEV capital and cash flows after tax and EEV operating profit before tax, driven primarily by a growth in sales, a more profitable product mix, and cost efficiencies.

7.7p - Recommended final dividend payment per shareTo reflect this good financial performance, we are recommending payment of a final dividend of 7.7p per share, for the year to 31 December 2007, making a total of 11.5p per share for 2007. This represents implied growth of 6.5%, consistent with the Group's progressive dividend policy – and shows our confidence in Standard Life's ability to grow and generate capital and cash going forward.

Chairman's statement ... continued