Legal & General share price up as insurance group bucks annuities trend
Shareholders appeared pleased with Legal & General’s quarterly update, published yesterday, pushing share prices up by over two per cent.
The insurance group reported growth in revenues, operating profit, customer numbers and net cash. The company sold a record £3.9bn worth of annuity sales in the nine months to September 2014, up five per cent on the same period of last year despite changes to pension rules having a chilling effect on the market. L&G achieved this growth through bulk annuity sales, which increased by 29 per cent.
The company said its success in the annuity market “demonstrated the strength and flexibility of our franchise”. Meanwhile, annuity assets were up 16 per cent to £39.9bn. In its general insurance business, L&G reported gross premiums of £282m, up from £280m recorded in the first nine months of 2013.
Group chief executive Nigel Wilson, who is nominated for Personality of the Year at this year’s City A.M. awards, said: “We remain confident in our ability to deliver economically and socially useful products for our customers and strong and sustainable growth for our shareholders.
“Recent market volatility is a reminder of the ongoing market uncertainty that still exists. And while no model can be completely immunised, we believe our strategy creates a high degree of resilience.”