British insurer Standard Life beat forecasts day with a 71 per cent rise in first-half operating profit.
Standard Life, which scrapped its mutual status and listed last year, said its operating profit before tax, on a European embedded value basis, was £353 million (€522 million).
A poll of nine analysts by Reuters had produced an average forecast of £318 million, while the company had provided a consensus forecast of £327 million.
On a statutory basis, underlying profit before tax fell 10 per cent, hit by tough comparisons after 2006 benefited from provision releases and exceptional sales in Germany.
Standard Life said new business contribution for the first half was £151 million, up 66 per cent and again above expectations, with group margins - which it had already signalled would be above 2006's 1.4 per cent - at 1.8 per cent.
The insurer said it would pay an interim dividend of 3.8 pence per share, a touch above forecasts.