Standard Life Rebel Gets Shares After Long Wait
29/08/2006
By RTRS

London, August 29 (Reuters) – Investment manager Fred Woollard has invested in Standard Life <SL.L>, six years after he failed in his own high profile campaign to force the British insurer to float on the stock market.

Standard Life fought off Woollard’s attempt to force it to demutualise in 2000 only to have in July 2006 Britain’s biggest initial public share offering for six years.

Woollard now runs boutique investment management firm Samuel Terry Asset Management in Sydney and had invested 4 percent of its portfolio in Standard Life.  He said he bought the shares at 242 pence each on July 10, their first day of trading, and still has them.

“I believed that the shares were too cheap and that Standard Life has a reasonably bright future,” Woollard told Reuters on Tuesday. “Standard Life has a huge network of distribution through IFAs (independent financial advisors) across the UK, it has a great brand name, it will go on writing business.”

He said the conversion to a Plc should also make it more efficient and profitable.

Standard Life shares were up .03 percent at 259p by 1345 GMT, up 13 percent from their issue price.

Woollard said his portfolio is worth about 3 million pounds ($5.7 million) and typically has 20 to 30 investments in Australia and overseas.

(Reporting by Steve Slater, editing by Jason Neely and Greg Mahlich)

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