Lower profits in Legal & General’s investment management and general insurance businesses took the shine off an overall 10 per cent rise in first-half operating profit, making the insurer the largest loser in the FTSE 100 index.
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LONDON-Legal & General Group PLC (LGEN.LN) Tuesday reported a 9.6% rise in its headline adjusted operating profit for the first half of 2016, and said its five long-term growth drivers remain unaffected by volatile financial markets and political uncertainty.
Adjusted operating profit grew 10% from previous year to 822 million pounds.
Net cash generation swelled 16% to £727m and the group delivered a 20% return on equity.
Profits in the division were impacted by weak markets earlier in the year, but Gregory said he expected stronger markets in the second half to help profitability.
The firm said that despite uncertainty about such deals following the recent plunge in gilt yields and equity markets in the immediate wake of the European Union referendum, “international demand for pension risk transfer solutions remains strong and is expected to continue for many years”.
Legal & General’s profit after tax stood at £667 million for the half year ending June 2016, up 22% on the £547 million declared at the same point last year.
Further, the company said that for this interim dividend and going forward, the Board has chose to adopt a formulaic approach to setting the interim dividend, being 30% of the prior year full year dividend.
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Standard Life rose 3 percent after reporting a 7.5 percent increase in its first-half dividend.
