{"id":52046,"date":"2026-04-20T12:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/52046\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T12:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T12:20:15","slug":"standard-life-offers-attractive-returns-for-shareholders-after-aegon-deal-says-ubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/52046\/","title":{"rendered":"Standard Life offers attractive returns for shareholders after Aegon deal, says UBS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/50ed186a78f089a4e2d51cacd6c23ee0.jpeg\" alt=\"Standard Life offers attractive returns for shareholders after Aegon deal, says UBS\" loading=\"eager\" height=\"539\" width=\"960\" class=\"yf-lglytj  loaded\"\/> Standard Life offers attractive returns for shareholders after Aegon deal, says UBS Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock      <\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/quote\/SL..l\" data-ylk=\"slk:Standard Life PLC (LSE:SL.);elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Standard Life PLC (LSE&quot;}\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Standard Life PLC (LSE:SL.)<\/a> offers one of the most attractive cash return profiles in the sector, according to UBS.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The Swiss bank said the group\u2019s announcement last week of its\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk\/companies\/news\/1090572\/standard-life-buys-aegon-uk-to-become-uk-s-largest-retirement-savings-group-1090572.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:acquisition of Aegon UK;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;acquisition of Aegon UK&quot;}\" class=\"link \">acquisition of Aegon UK<\/a> is both strategically and financially attractive, delivering a free cash flow yield of more than 15% and supporting a total shareholder return yield of around 10%.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">UBS expects increased distributions over the next strategic plan, including annual share buybacks of around \u00a3175 million and dividend growth of about 5% a year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The next catalyst is a new three-year plan, due later in 2026, where UBS expects upgraded targets and higher returns to shareholders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">Cash generation is forecast to rise to \u00a36.3 billion over 2027-29, up from \u00a35.1 billion in the current plan, leaving more than \u00a31 billion of excess cash even after investment and payouts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">The balance sheet is also seen as resilient, with solvency expected to reach around 183% by 2029 and leverage falling below 30% this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yf-1fy9kyt\">UBS maintained a &#8216;buy&#8217;\u00a0rating and lifted its price target to 870p from 810p.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Standard Life offers attractive returns for shareholders after Aegon deal, says UBS Proactive uses images sourced from Shutterstock&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[29520,29521,29519,1271,223,1966],"class_list":{"0":"post-52046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ubs","8":"tag-aegon","9":"tag-aegon-uk","10":"tag-standard-life","11":"tag-total-shareholder-return","12":"tag-ubs","13":"tag-ubs-proactive"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116437006810899093","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}