Legal & General Group Plc L&G on track for a record year in 2017 (6258Y)

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RNS Number : 6258Y

Legal & General Group Plc

07 December 2017

Legal & General Group plc

7 December 2017

Legal & General on track for a record year in 2017

Legal & General Group Plc ("L&G") today updates on its trading performance.

L&G continues to see great momentum in all its businesses in the year to date and has experienced particularly strong growth in recent weeks. We remain strategically well placed to deliver strong, attractive growth and returns in our core markets.

Legal & General Retirement ("LGR") has delivered total sales for 2017 to date(1) of GBP6.2bn, with the business showing strong momentum in the UK and US institutional pension risk transfer markets, as well as in individual annuities and lifetime mortgages.

Annuity sales generated GBP4.5bn of annuity premium, consisting of: GBP3.3bn of UK institutional pension risk transfer business, $0.7bn of US institutional pension risk transfer business and GBP0.6bn of UK retail annuities. We have doubled our institutional pension risk transfer business in the US versus 2016 and have now written over $1.6bn of US business since entering the market. LGR sales for 2017 to date also include GBP0.8bn of longevity insurance.

We have significantly outperformed the market in the retail space, with UK individual annuity premiums up 93%, equivalent to a 14% market share. We have written over GBP0.9bn of lifetime mortgage advances, an increase of 71%, and our innovative, digital lifetime mortgage business now has a leading 35% market share.

Our UK and US pipeline for pension risk transfer is the largest it has ever been. Additionally we expect the UK's ageing demographic and extensive use of cash drawdowns to make the lifetime mortgage market increasingly attractive.

Legal & General Investment Management ("LGIM") achieved total external net inflows of GBP38.1bn to the end of October. Inflows were well-diversified by product line and geography. Our liability driven investments ("LDI"), active fixed and property funds delivered strong performances, and LGIM continues to be the market leader in defined benefit and defined contribution solutions in the UK, and a global market leader in LDI.

By the end of October, International net inflows were GBP26.1bn, with GBP11.3bn from the US and, encouragingly, a further GBP10.9bn from Europe. Our US asset management business continues to deliver with over 330 institutional clients and over $170bn of assets. We have established our regional office in Tokyo to complement our capabilities in Hong Kong, and LGIM's recently-announced entry into the European ETF market will provide access to one of the fastest growing segments in asset management.

Legal & General Capital ("LGC") has generated GBP256m of gross proceeds from transactions with a gross value of GBP821m to the end of October and has committed and invested GBP319m to new investments as it continues to recycle investments into new strategic UK real asset opportunities. Our investment programme in housing, urban regeneration, clean energy and scale-ups continues to make good progress. Since October, LGC has also announced the acquisition of its second later living business, Renaissance Villages, for a net purchase price of GBP51m, and the acquisition of a second major housing site, Arborfield in Berkshire, with capacity and planning consent for 1,500 units.

Legal & General Insurance ("LGI") continued to benefit from our strong market shares in UK retail protection and US term assurance with total gross written premiums to the end of October up 6%(2) to GBP2.1bn. The management actions taken to address the adverse claims experience reported in our Group Protection business in H1 2017 are becoming evident and experience is improving in line with management expectation, and the first half losses have been completely reversed in H2.

General Insurance ("GI") gross written premiums are up 13% to GBP305m by the end of October. We continue to increase our direct to consumer sales, have launched our market leading digitally innovative SmartQuote proposition and we have been successful in winning further distribution agreements for our household products. In October we agreed to acquire Buddies, a pet insurance provider, which will enable us to further diversify our product range in GI. Following our adverse claims experience in the first quarter of the year, we took management action which has mitigated the ongoing impact of claims on the GI result.

Our business growth is supported by a strong balance sheet with a Solvency II surplus of c.GBP6.9bn and a shareholder coverage ratio of 190%(3) .

Nigel Wilson, CEO, commented:

"L&G is on track for a record year for earnings and profits. Our core business divisions are generating formidable momentum. With yesterday's announcement of the sale of our closed book, in run-off Mature Savings business for GBP650m, our business is now well-positioned and focused on the products and geographies where we see optimum growth and cultural alignment. Our market leading positions and strong balance sheet, coupled with our management capability is allowing us to benefit from global growth opportunities."

   1.   At 6 Dec 2017 
   2.   Increase versus 31 October 2016. LGI comparison excludes disposed business (L&G Netherlands). 

3. At the end of October, the Group's estimated Solvency II surplus was c.GBP6.9bn with Eligible Own Funds of c.GBP14.6bn, a Solvency Capital Requirement ("SCR") of c.GBP7.7bn and a shareholder basis coverage ratio of 190%. In line with our practice, this assumes that Transitional Measures for Technical Provisions are recalculated to current market conditions, as we believe this provides the most up to date and meaningful view of our Solvency II position. The shareholder basis adjusts for the Own Funds and SCR attributable to our With-profits fund and the final salary pension scheme. Legal & General Group's core subsidiaries are rated AA- by Standard & Poors

ends

For further information, please contact:

Investors:

Laura Doyle Head of Investor Relations 020 3124 2088

Sujee Rajah Investor Relations Manager 020 3124 2047

Media:

John Godfrey Corporate Affairs Director 020 3124 2090

Graeme Wilson Tulchan Communications 020 7353 4200

Notes to editors:

Legal & General Group Plc:

1. Established in 1836, Legal & General is a leading provider of insurance, savings and investment management products in the UK. The Group has a market capitalisation of GBP15.6bn (as at 6 December 2017) and is responsible for investing GBP951bn worldwide (as at 30 June 2017) on behalf of investors, policyholders and shareholders.

2. Legal & General has over seven million customers in the UK for life assurance, pensions, investments and general insurance plans and over one million customers in the US who rely on us for life assurance.

3. For full year 2016, Legal & General's adjusted operating profit (IFRS basis) was GBP1,628m and adjusted earnings per share were 22.20p for the period, an increase of 11% and 19% respectively. Net release from operations (net cash) was up 12% to GBP1,411. Full year dividend was up 7% to 14.35p, with adjusted return on equity at 19.6%.

4. In H1 2017, Legal & General's operating profit was up 27% to GBP988m with earnings per share up 41% to 15.94p. Total release from operations was up 13% to GBP824m. An interim dividend of 4.30p was announced, return on equity rose to 26.7% and the Solvency II coverage ratio was 186%.

5. Legal & General is listed on the London Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol LGEN.LN and has an American Depositary Receipt ticker symbol OTC:LGGNY. Further information on our ADR program can be found here: http://www.legalandgeneralgroup.com/investors/adr.html

For more information on Legal & General, please see http://www.legalandgeneralgroup.com/

Forward-looking statements

This announcement may contain certain forward-looking statements relating to Legal & General, its plans and its current goals and expectations relating to future financial condition, performance and results. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances which are beyond Legal & General's control, including, among others, UK domestic and global economic and business conditions, market related risks such as fluctuations in interest rates and exchange rates, the policies and actions of regulatory and Governmental authorities, the impact of competition, the timing impact of these events and other uncertainties of future acquisition or combinations within relevant industries. As a result, Legal & General's actual future condition, performance and results may differ materially from the plans, goals and expectations set out in these forward-looking statements and persons reading this announcement should not place reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made only as at the date on which such statements are made and Legal & General Group Plc does not undertake to update forward-looking statements contained in this announcement or any other forward-looking statement it may make.

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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December 07, 2017 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)