A 62% slump in annuity sales failed to stop Legal and General Group posting an increased operating profit for the first half of 2015.
The company released its results this morning, which showed an 18% rise in profit, reaching £750m, up from £636m in the same period last year.

Profit after tax also went up 8% to £547m compared to £507m last year.

Annuity sales fell from £3,518bn to £1,326bn and bulk purchase annuity premiums have gone from £3,135m in 2014 to £1,146m in the first half of 2015.

Annuity assets, however, were up 13% to £43.4bn compared to last year’s figure of £38.5bn.

{desktop}{/desktop}{mobile}{/mobile}

L&G also reported an increase of 11% in net cash generation to £629m – rising from £567m – with operational cash generation up 8% to £624m.

Nigel Wilson, group chief executive, said: “Legal & General continues to deliver strong organic growth in the UK and the US from both our developing and established, market leading businesses. In addition we are disposing of, or closing non-core businesses and reducing costs in real and nominal terms.

“The actions that we are taking allow us to focus on our chosen markets, enable us to continue to deliver low prices and better value for our increasing customer base and deliver attractive returns for our shareholders.

“This financial and strategic discipline is driving our sixth year of double digit growth in net cash, operating profit and dividends – particularly noteworthy in H1 was the diversity of the strong operational and financial delivery, with an 18% increase in operating profit to £750m, the 19% increase in dividend per share to 3.45p and the 19% ROE.”