LONDON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Insurer Legal & General posted an above-forecast 10 percent rise in first-half operatingprofit to 822 million pounds ($1.07 billion) on Tuesday, boostedby strong growth in its retirement business.
Analysts expected to see operating profit of 812 millionpounds, according to a company-supplied forecast.
Net cash generation rose 16 percent from a year earlier to727 million pounds, against a forecast 718 million.
The firm saw annuity sales of 3.8 billion pounds, comparedwith 1.3 billion pounds in the first half of 2015, mainly inproducts known as bulk annuities, which involve taking on therisk of defined benefit, or final salary, pension schemes fromcompanies.
"International demand for pension risk transfer solutionsremains strong and is expected to continue for many years,"chief executive Nigel Wilson said in a trading statement.
Legal & General Investment Management's assets undermanagement rose 18 percent to 841.5 billion pounds, after seeingexternal net inflows of 9.6 billion pounds.
The firm said it had introduced a new formula for settingits interim dividend, at 30 percent of its 2015 full-yeardividend. This brought the interim dividend to 4 pence pershare, up 16 percent and against a forecast 3.68 pence.
($1 = 0.7700 pounds) (Reporting by Carolyn Cohn, editing by Sinead Cruise)
Legal & General (LGEN)
