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LONDON (Alliance News) - Legal & General Group PLC Wednesday reported an 8% increase in annual pretax profit, bolstered by double digit operating profit growth in its retirement, capital and investment management divisions.
The life insurance and investments group said it made a GBP1.24 billion pretax profit in 2014, up 8.8% from GBP1.14 billion in 2013.
Its retirement division was a driver behind its performance, reporting a 38% jump in operating profit to GBP428 million, while Legal & General Capital, which manages the group's principal investments, reported a 13% increase in operating profit to GBP203 million.
Legal & General Investment Management, the group's institutional asset manager, reported an 11% increase in operating profit to GBP336 million, while its protection and savings business, the assurance society, reported that operating profit increased by 4% to GBP460 million.
However, the American life insurance division's operating profit fell to GBP56 million from GBP92 million.
"Our market leading growth businesses coupled with continuous cost reductions have given us scale and efficiency in our chosen markets. The five global macro trends driving our strategy - ageing populations, globalisation of asset markets, welfare reform, digital connectivity and bank retrenchment - create long term growth opportunities, which we position our businesses to capture," Nigel Wilson, chief executive, said in a statement.
Legal & General increased its dividend for the year to 11.25 pence per share from 9.30p in the prior year.
Net cash generation increased to GBP1.10 billion from GBP1.00 billion.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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