L&G retirement lending drives 14% profit rise

Legal & General Retirement saw growth of 49% to £639m, strengthened by the acquisition of Newlife Home Finance, now Legal & General Home Finance, which saw lifetime mortgage advances of £201m.

L&G expects to write up to £500m of lifetime mortgages new business in 2016.

Individual Annuity sales fell by 45% to £327m and Group expects the market to remain subdued into 2016.

Nigel Wilson, Group Chief Executive, said:

“Legal & General delivered excellent growth in cash, profits and dividends in 2015: Net cash generation and Operating Profit were both up by 14%, EPS was up 11 % and we are increasing the dividend by 19%. Over the last 4 years we have delivered sustained growth, Net Cash has increased 10%, EPS has increased 11% and the dividend increased by 20% on average each year.

“We had already moved to a capital-lite model for UK pension risk transfer business in anticipation of the new Solvency II regime and we will use our Solvency II surplus capital of £5.5bn to continue to deliver on our strategy. We have a robust business model which has proved to be adept and resilient in dealing with fiscal and regulatory changes in our sector. We are planning for more global economic and market volatility and are well positioned for continued pressure on pricing and changes in product mix in our industry."