Phoenix Group: FTSE 100 giant changes name to Standard Life
Pensions giant Phoenix Group is set to change its name to Standard Life as it adopts the name of the brand it acquired seven years ago.
It follows widespread speculation that the board had been considering a name change.
The firm stated that Standard Life was its most reputable name and that the change would take effect in March 2026.
“Changing our name from Phoenix Group Holdings plc to Standard Life plc in March 2026 brings our most trusted brand to the forefront and demonstrates our commitment to helping customers secure a better retirement,” chief executive Andy said.
Briggs told CityAM: “We’ve made the strategic pivot to build out organic growth that’s gone really well and Standard Life just is a much more natural brand for the UK.”
Elsewhere, the company bolstered core metrics across the business in line with its new execution strategy to grow, optimise and enhance.
Phoenix’s IFRS adjusted operating profit – a key measure of core profitability – jumped 25 per cent to £451m.
The business said it has already sealed its £100m in cumulative annual cost savings target and was on track to exceed its year-end goal.
The group’s dividend per share was hiked 2.6 per cent to 27.35p.
Phoenix to win from regulatory moves
Briggs told CityAM there was a number of “real tailwinds” from political and regulatory changes that he believed the group was “uniquely positioned to capture that momentum”.
He cited the Financial Conduct Authority’s new targeted support scheme as a way to boost investment as well as landmark reforms from Rachel Reeves’ Mansion House Speech.
But Briggs added that the government’s new pension bill, which gives it the ability to mandate asset allocation, faces opposition in the industry.
“Most of the industry feels that consumers should have the choice themselves but actually we all feel very strongly that it really is in customers interest to have a higher allocation to private assets.”
As a result, he said Phoenix’s tie-up with Schroders, titled Future Growth Capital, would look to invest up to ten per cent of customers money into private assets.
Phoenix’s chairman, Sir Nicholas Lyons, has been a vocal critic of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ plans to unlock pensions investment.
After Reeves confirmed plans to set “binding” allocations in pension funds with the launch of “megafunds” to encourage fresh investment into UK infrastructure and businesses, Lyons took issue.
“I think we need to leave it to the private sector to make the right decisions around domestic buyers to listed equity capital,” he warned.
The pensions group chairman had previously hosted a secret summit in the Square Mile in 2024 to discuss how to pump billions of pounds of retirement cash into the country’s start-ups.