Standard Life plc (‘Standard Life’ or the ‘Group’), a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement saving and income, today announced that Ninety One, a global investment manager with £184 billion in assets under management (as at 30 June 2026), has been named as a core manager, awarding a £3 billion mandate across Ninety One’s Emerging Markets Equity and Asia ex-Japan strategies.

The strategies invest across the breadth of emerging markets, seeking opportunities in companies listed or based in emerging markets, as well as businesses with significant economic exposure to them. Their active approach provides core exposure to Asian and global emerging market equities through portfolios with balanced exposure to growth, quality, value and momentum through the cycle. With a long-term risk-adjusted alpha profile, the strategies offer the potential for excess returns through a focus on bottom-up stock selection without taking excessive risk.

The two strategies sit within Ninety One’s £25 billion Emerging Markets Equity platform, which offers a range of strategies tailored by geography, risk profile and investor objectives. The Emerging Markets Equity strategy is managed by Co-Portfolio Managers Archie Hart and Varun Laijawalla. The Asia Pacific ex-Japan strategy is managed by Co-Portfolio Managers Wenchang Ma and Charlie Linton.

Nuwan Goonetilleke

Emerging markets remain one of the most compelling sources of long-term growth in the global economy, but they are also an area where active management can add significant value. Successfully accessing those opportunities requires deep specialist expertise, extensive research capabilities and a disciplined investment approach. Ninety One stood out through the strength of its emerging markets franchise, its established investment process and its balanced approach to active stock selection, making it a strong partner for our customers' long-term savings.

This appointment reflects our commitment to selecting high-conviction investment managers where we believe they can enhance customer outcomes, while supporting a more streamlined and resilient investment platform. By combining the expertise of specialist investment managers with our scale and oversight, we aim to deliver stronger long-term outcomes and help more people build financial security in retirement.

- Interim Group Chief Investment Officer

Hendrik du Toit

We are delighted with the opportunity to serve Standard Life and its customers.  Emerging markets offer attractive investment opportunities. Today’s universe includes world-leading businesses and powerful growth stories at the forefront of the structural changes reshaping the global and regional landscape.

Ninety One has more than three decades of experience investing across emerging markets. This is an environment that rewards deep, specialist knowledge and active stock selection. For long-term investors, emerging markets are not a peripheral allocation. They provide access to some of the most important structural growth opportunities in the global economy. Through this mandate, Standard Life’s customers will have access to that opportunity through a disciplined approach to stock selection and balanced risk through the cycle.

- Founder and Chief Executive at Ninety One

Media enquiries

For further information, photos, video content or interviews, contact:

  • Dilesh Sangaran

    Dilesh Sangaran

    Senior Public Relations Manager, Investment, Asset Management and Sustainability
    Telephone

    +44 (0)797 460 4323

    Email

    dilesh.sangaran@standardlife.com

Notes to editors:

About Standard Life plc

Standard Life is a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement saving and income.

We are proud to manage £317bn in assets on behalf of our 12 million customers, and we champion the belief that everyone's journey to and through retirement can be better.

We offer our customers a broad range of retirement, investment and protection products across our customer brands which include Standard Life, SunLife, Phoenix Life and ReAssure

Our vision is to be the UK’s leading retirement savings and income business, building on Standard Life’s leadership positions in the workplace pensions, pension risk transfer and individual annuity markets, and our growing retail business. Our award-winning services are backed by industry leading apps and strong customer service.

As a FTSE 100-listed group, we are using our size, expertise and influence to deliver better outcomes for customers.

We’ve set targets to help an additional three million customers take steps toward a better retirement by 2035. We want to play our part in delivering a net zero economy and managing our impact and dependency on nature to shape the world our customers will retire into.

Standard Life is recognised as a leading employer, with long-standing accreditation as a Living Wage Employer, Living Pension Employer and in 2026 became one of Britain’s Most Admired Companies.