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LONDON, May 7 (Reuters) - British insurer Legal & General saw its net cash rise by more than a fifth in the firstquarter of 2014, driven in part by demand for its retirementproducts.
In a trading statement on Wednesday, the company said netcash was up 21 percent to 301 million pounds ($511.47million)while operational cash generation rose 6 percent to 297million pounds which the company attributed to demand for itspension products.
The group's Retirement arm saw new business premiumsquadruple to 3.3 billion pounds following the signing of a bulkannuity contract with the ICI pension fund.
Strong sales of bulk annuities are offsetting the impact ofreform to pensions in the UK which is to end compulsorypurchases of individual annuities next year.
L&G's individual annuity sales dropped 40 percent in thequarter, and cancellations of newly bought annuities after theUK government announced the reforms in March, had a 15 millionpounds impact, the company said.($1 = 0.5885 British Pounds) (Reporting by Chris Vellacott. Editing by Clare Hutchison)
