Standard Life Plc : Director/PDMR Shareholding

Standard Life plc

('the Company')

Notification of Interests of Executive Directors and Other Persons Discharging Managerial Responsibility ('PDMRs')

On 29 March 2012, the Company granted to each of the individuals noted below awards under the following plans:

·  2012 Group Long Term Incentive Plan(LTIP)- Awards in the form of nil-cost options ('2012 Group LTIP Awards') to acquire ordinary shares in the capital of the Company, subject to the rules of the Standard Life Long Term Incentive Plan and a pre-vesting operating profit performance condition as defined in the deed of grant and summarised in the Directors' Remuneration Report in the Annual Report and Accounts 2011.

The Awards will normally vest on 29 March 2015, but only to the extent that the performance condition has been met.  Once vested, an Award may be exercised in the 6 months thereafter.

·  2012 Standard Life Investments Long Term Incentive Plan (SLI LTIP) - Awards in the form of nil-cost options ('2012 Standard Life Investments LTIP Awards') to acquire ordinary shares in the capital of the Company, subject to the rules of the Standard Life Investments Standard Life Long Term Incentive Plan.

The Awards will normally vest on 29 March 2015, conditional on continued employment and the performance condition defined by reference to the third party earnings before interest and tax generated by Standard Life Investments in 2012, 2013 and 2014.  The performance condition is underpinned by the requirement that investment performance of Standard Life Investments is not to be in the lower quartile of the three-year money-weighted average investment performance compared to other asset managers.   Once vested, an Award may be exercised in the 6 months thereafter.

·  2011 Short Term Incentive Plan - 2012 Deferred Share Award - Awards ("2012 Deferred Share Awards") over existing ordinary shares in the Company. The level of shares granted to each individual was equivalent to a proportion of his or her annual bonus for 2011.

These Awards will normally vest on 29 March 2014conditional on continued employment and subject to the rules of the 2011 Short Term Incentive Plan.

No consideration is payable on the grant or vesting of all of the above Awards.  During the vesting periods, all of the above awards carry a right to receive dividend equivalents, to the extent that the awards vest.  Further information on each of these Plans is available in Directors' Remuneration Report in the Annual Report and Accounts 2011.

The table below also includes the total of outstanding shares awarded to each individual previously granted under the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Group LTIP, the 2011 Deferred Share award under the 2010 Short term Incentive Plan, 2010 SLI LTIP and 2011 SLI LTIP, any unvested Restricted Stock Plan (RSP) awards and awards under the 2011 Sharesave Plan.

	Number of Shares awarded under 2012 Group LTIP	Number of Shares awarded under 2012 Standard Life Investments LTIP	Number of Shares awarded under 2012 Deferred Share Award	Total number of outstanding Shares awarded under LTIPs, RSPs, Deferred Share and Sharesave
Executive Directors
David Thomas Nish	665,750	-	209,667	2,942,887
Norman Keith Skeoch	365,088	365,088	23,813	2,704,983
Jacqueline Hunt	288,581	-	116,095	1,273,385
Other PDMRs
Alexander Hugh McCormack Begbie	170,088	-	45,211	652,817
Charles Guay	145,416	-	-	145,416
Bruce Francis Kelsall	99,303	-	-	359,172
Paul Stephen Matthews	219,053	-	57,753	863,522
Nathan Richard Parnaby	185,490	-	46,042	875,160

This notice is given in fulfilment of obligations under DTR 3.1.4 (R).

2 April 2012

Enquiries:

Barry Cameron, Media Relations, 0131 245 6165/ 44 (0)771 248 6463

Lorraine Rees, Investor Relations, 44 (0)207 872 4124/ 44 (0)773 830 0878

Kenneth Gilmour, Group Secretariat, 0131 245 0751/ 44 (0)773 497 4073