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LONDON (Alliance News) - Pension consolidator Chesnara PLC boosted its interim dividend on Thursday despite a near halving in profit year-on-year.
For the six months to June 30, pretax profit fell to GBP26.5 million from GBP51.6 million a year prior. The company explained that its 2017 interim results included a one-off GBP20.7 million gain on the acquisition of Legal & General Nederland, purchased in November 2016 for EUR160.0 million at a 33% discount on its value.
The company's total income net of investment return fell by 12% year-on-year to GBP327.1 million from GBP373.3 million, while insurance premium revenue increased to GBP144.4 million from GBP91.6 million.
The company incurred a GBP28.4 million loss on insurance premium ceded to reinsurers, widened from GBP25.3 million the year before.
The company's economic value, which the company described as a "more meaningful measure of the long term value of the group", dropped to GBP700.8 million from GBP723.1 million at the end of 2017, following the payment of the final dividend for 2017 and foreign exchange losses due to a "weakening of the Swedish krona", Chesnara explained.
Chesnara proposed an interim dividend of 7.21 pence per share, 3% higher year-on-year from 7.0p.
"During the first half of 2018, a period in which equity markets remained broadly unchanged, we continued to generate more than sufficient cash to fund the dividend strategy," the company said.
It added: "Against a backdrop of continuing political uncertainty, economic volatility and during a period of significant operational development, the Chesnara business model has held up well."
Chesnara's solvency ratio rose to 157% from 143% a year ago.
Looking ahead, the company, which operates in the UK, Sweden and the Netherlands, said it remains confident it can deliver "against its strategic objectives".
"In particular, the UK business remains a robust source of cash, with additional potential to take management actions to enhance the core cash if required," Chairman Peter Mason said.
He added: "The structure of the group, with established regulated entities in several European countries, together with the fact we do not trade or share resource across territories, means I remain of the view that whatever the outcome from the Brexit negotiations, we expect it to have little direct impact on our business model."
Shares were trading down 0.5% at 388.00p each.