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Key facts

Legal & General is a leading UK-based financial services business, with over 10 million customers across the world.
We deliver financial solutions and services that help people to plan for their future. Our businesses help people achieve financial security by building retirement income, protecting their homes and families and enabling them to save for the future. We aim to be socially and economically useful in society, working closely with government, industry bodies and charities to help people have good housing, live healthy lives and enjoy good levels of income in retirement.

This is our social purpose: we understand people’s financial needs, pool risk and help society by reducing the pressure on public finances.

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Legal & General's Fundamentals (LGEN)

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Legal & General Group reports strong new business sales for its retirement division in the first half of this year, with minimal disruption caused by uncertainties over the EU referendum.

New bulk annuity transactions totalling c.£250m were executed in June.

Following the £2.9bn Aegon back-book transaction in May, this brings bulk annuity business executed in H1 2016 to £3.6bn, over £1bn ahead of the full year bulk annuity sales figure of £2.4bn for 2015.



Lifetime mortgage sales have exceeded £200m in H1 2016 meaning these too have surpassed the full year comparator for 2015, as well as being greater than our individual annuity sales in H1 2016.

Legal & General Retirement sales across bulk annuities, individual annuities and lifetime mortgages of £4bn have been achieved in H1 2016.

Managing director of Legal & General Retirement, Kerrigan Procter, said: "Political and market uncertainty around the EU Referendum did not get in the way of business, as companies or individuals will always need to manage their employees' or own retirement. Bulk annuity transactions continue to be an important way for Legal & General to deploy capital to help our UK clients, and use the premiums to invest in real assets such as UK infrastructure and direct lending."

Legal & General Retirement now provides more lifetime mortgages to its customers than individual annuities. We expect this trend to accelerate as more baby boomers retire and choose to access their housing wealth to help fund their retirement, instead of buying an individual annuity.

CEO of Legal & General Home Finance, Bernie Hickman, added: "Legal & General entered the lifetime mortgage market last year. Our lowest interest rate on lifetime mortgages is now below 5%, and we have recently been awarded Lifetime Mortgage Lender of the year. We have seen rapid growth, and within a year of entering the lifetime mortgage market, now provide more lifetime mortgages to our customers than individual annuities. Individual annuities still have their place, but customers want more choice in how they fund their retirement, with accessing housing wealth being an attractive option for asset rich, income poor retirees."

Panmure Gordon Buy 211.35 305.00 305.00 Reiterates

On these from 188.

They don't like the results today. Interim dividend up nicely so I'm sticking around for the yield

CC
Also holding.

LEGAL & GENERAL TO SELL COFUNDS AND IPS TO AEGON

Legal & General Group Plc ("Legal & General") has today announced the sale of Cofunds, the UK's leading investment platform for advisers and other financial institutions, to Aegon for £140m. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval, which is expected by December 2016. The sale includes the Investor Portfolio Service ("IPS") platform as well as Cofunds' retail and institutional business. All employees in Cofunds and IPS will be transitioned to Aegon.

Legal & General and Aegon have worked closely this year in delivering three mutually beneficial transactions: the acquisition of Aegon's £2.9bn back book annuity portfolio, the 5 year distribution agreement to provide individual annuities to Aegon pension customers, and the acquisition of Cofunds and IPS by Aegon.

Mark Gregory, Group Chief Financial Officer of Legal & General, said:

"Over the last few years Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) has developed a market leading international defined contribution pension platform business. LGIM manages £50bn in UK and US defined contribution pension assets, and plans to expand into the DC market of Asia. Cofunds is at the point where it requires a significant upgrade in technology to exploit its leadership position in the UK platform market. We have concluded that this long term commitment is best achieved under Aegon's ownership as a specialist wealth platform provider."

The sale of Cofunds and IPS to Aegon does not impact Legal & General's relationship with Nationwide, the UK's largest building society.

Legal & General's Solvency II surplus, as at the 30 June 2016, was estimated at £5.3bn. The sale of Cofunds will increase the Solvency II surplus by £125m, and its Economic Capital surplus by £105m.

RBC Capital Markets Outperform 212.25 300.00 300.00 Reiterates

Rolls-Royce Buyout: Legal & General completes largest pension buyout of 2016 with £1.1 billion Vickers Group Pension Scheme

Legal & General Group Plc ("Legal & General") today announced it has completed a £1.1 billion pension buyout for the Vickers Group Pension Scheme, part of the Rolls-Royce Group, covering over 11,000 members.

Legal & General Retirement sales year to date are £6.7 billion, with £6.3 billion in annuities and £0.4 billion in lifetime mortgages. The decrease in the Group's Solvency II surplus from new business regulatory capital strain is expected to be less than £200m (circa 3% of premiums) for business year to date.

Kerrigan Procter, Managing Director of Legal & General Retirement, said:

"We look forward to welcoming the 11,000 members of the Vickers Group Pension Scheme to Legal & General. We are pleased to have worked closely with the Scheme Trustees, their advisers Mercer, and the Rolls-Royce Group to achieve a full buyout. Our relationship with the Trustees has been a long-standing one, starting in 2007 with an LDI mandate to de-risk the Scheme and now culminating in a full buyout. We are grateful for being able to play a part as the Trustees, with patient and careful management, steered their way through the financial crisis, recession, the consequences of QE and latterly the outcome of the EU referendum before reaching the point where buyout was appropriate and achievable for all Scheme members."

Joel Griffin, Head of Pensions at Rolls-Royce said:

"This is a great testimony to the work of the Trustees and the Company working collaboratively over many years to ensure that this scheme is well funded with a prudent investment strategy to enable this excellent outcome for former Vickers employees."

ends

LEGAL & GENERAL TO SELL LEGAL & GENERAL NETHERLANDS TO CHESNARA PLC

Legal & General Group Plc ("Legal & General") has reached agreement in principle with Chesnara plc ("Chesnara") to sell Legal & General Nederland Levensverzekering Maatschappij N.V. ("Legal & General Netherlands") to Chesnara for €160 million. The sale of the business is expected to marginally improve the group coverage ratio, and be for a small IFRS profit.
Mark Gregory, Group Chief Financial Officer, Legal & General said: "Our strategy is focused on having scalable businesses in growth markets. As a consequence, over the last two years, we have disposed of a number of operations we no longer regard as core, including our Irish, French, Egyptian and Gulf businesses, and now we are doing the same with our Dutch business. We have also disposed of the Suffolk Life SIPP business in the UK and agreed a sale of Cofunds."

John Deane, Chief Executive Officer, Chesnara plc said: "Chesnara is delighted to be acquiring another well-run and attractive business in the Dutch life assurance market. As with our Swedish subsidiary Movestic, we will be writing protection and pension policies. This will complement our closed block consolidation business Waard. We see great opportunities for both organisations within the Chesnara group to deliver value to our customers, their advisors and our shareholders."

Legal & General Netherlands' Works Council (ondernemingsraad) has been asked for advice on the transaction, as required under Dutch law. The transaction is subject to the signing of a definitive agreement and the approval of regulatory authorities.

Legal & General Netherlands is headquartered in Hilversum, Netherlands. It was established in 1984, and Pieter Glas has been CEO since April 2016. It is a leading player in adviser-led risk and investment-linked products, sold through independent financial advisers, serving high-end affluent customers. It also has an established defined contribution group pension platform focused on Dutch SMEs. It has over 170,000 policyholders, funds under management are €2.2 billion, and it wrote gross written premiums of £25 million at H1 in 2016.

ends

LEGAL & GENERAL COMPLETES THE SALE OF COFUNDS AND IPS TO AEGON

As previously notified on the 11th August 2016, Legal & General Group plc ("Legal & General") has today announced the completion of the sale of Cofunds and IPS to Aegon.

This is the third transaction completed with Aegon by Legal & General. These transactions are the acquisition of Aegon's £2.9 billion annuity back book, the 5 year individual annuity distribution agreement for Aegon pension customers with Legal & General, and the acquisition of Cofunds and IPS by Aegon.

Legal & General's strategy is focused on scalable businesses in growth markets, where it can deliver attractive returns on capital. Legal & General has developed a market leading, scalable, international define contribution business. As Cofunds is at a point it requires significant upgrade in technology to exploit its leadership position, its long-term ownership and growth potential are best achieved under the ownership of a specialist wealth platform provider.


ends

Full Year Results 2016 Part 1

EPS1 UP 19% TO 22.2P, PROFIT BEFORE TAX2 UP 17% TO £1.6BN

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS3:
· NET RELEASE FROM OPERATIONS (NET CASH)4 UP 12% TO £1,411M (2015: £1,256M)
· ADJUSTED OPERATING PROFIT5 UP 11% TO £1,628M (2015: £1,463M)
· PROFIT AFTER TAX UP 16% TO £1,265M (2015: £1,094M)
· EARNINGS PER SHARE UP 17% TO 21.22P (2015: 18.16P)
· ADJUSTED EARNINGS PER SHARE1 UP 19% TO 22.20P (2015: 18.58P)
· FULL YEAR DIVIDEND UP 7% TO 14.35P PER SHARE (2015: 13.40P)
· ADJUSTED RETURN ON EQUITY6 19.6% (2015: 17.7%)
· SOLVENCY II SURPLUS OF £5.7BN (2015: £5.5BN)
· SOLVENCY II COVERAGE RATIO OF 171% (2015: 176%), SHAREHOLDER BASIS7

BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS:
· LGR NEW BUSINESS OF £8.5BN (2015: £2.9BN)
· LGR ANNUITY ASSETS UP 25% AT £54.4BN (2015: £43.4BN)
· GROUP-WIDE DIRECT INVESTMENT UP 39% AT £10.0BN (2015: £7.2BN)
· LGIM AUM UP 20% AT £894.2BN (2015: £746.1BN)

Nigel Wilson, Group Chief Executive, said:

"Our long term approach to strategy and investment coupled with outstanding execution has again delivered terrific financial performance in 2016. Profit before tax up 17% to £1.6 billion, net release from operations up 12% to £1.4 billion, EPS up 19% at 22.2p and a return on equity of nearly 20%.
We believe the UK remains a great place for us to help fill the huge funding gaps and under-provision of key financial products. We are playing our part to regenerate the UK's cities, delivering economic growth and jobs, capitalise on its world-leading universities and improve commercialisation of its scientific discoveries. Additionally, we are accelerating the evolution of our US businesses.
We look forward to the future with confidence as our core markets are growing, our market share is increasing, our balance sheet is strong and we have positive cash and earnings momentum. Through a combination of selective hiring and internal promotions we have significantly strengthened our management team and technology capability".
Sir John Kingman, Chairman, said:
"Legal & General has a strong management team and formidable further potential. Against that backdrop, the Board has considered the best trajectory of dividend growth, taking into account sustainability across a wide range of economic scenarios and the Group's anticipated financial performance. Accordingly, the Board has recommended an increase in the full year 2016 dividend of 7%".

1. Adjusted earnings per share is calculated by dividing profit after tax attributable to equity holders of the Company, by the weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue during the period. This excludes a £60m net loss on disposals being a £64m impairment loss in relation to the disposal of Cofunds and a £4m profit in relation to the disposal of Suffolk Life (2015: £25m net loss in relation to the disposals of Legal & General France, Legal & General Gulf, Legal & General Egypt and Legal & General International (Ireland)).
2. Represents profit before tax attributable to equity holders.
3. The metrics within the Group's financial highlights are defined in the glossary, which includes Alternative Performance Measures, on pages 89 to 92 to this report.
4. Net release from operations has replaced the term Net cash generation. There is no change in how it is determined.
5. Adjusted operating profit is calculated as operating profit of £1,562m (2015: £1,455m) before taking account of the provision in respect of the closure of our Kingswood office of £66m (2015: £8m).
6. Adjusted return on equity is calculated by taking profit after tax attributable to equity holders of the Company, excluding the £60m net loss on disposals (2015: £25m net loss) described in note 1, divided by the average shareholders' equity during the period.
7. Solvency II coverage ratio on a shareholder basis is adjusted for the Own Funds and SCR of the With-profits fund and the final salary pension schemes.


more.....

"Terrific" results again from this lot.

Yep, all good and encouraging. Staying in for the div as well as the potential sp strength.

And yet the SP has dropped today!

No more then a case of sell on the news queen1.

RBC Capital Markets Outperform 247.75 310.00 310.00 Reiterates

Credit Suisse Underperform 247.75 - 215.00 Initiates/Starts

Took profits before going ex div this year for a change.

Solvency update http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=5552030

HSBC Buy 260.10 290.00 290.00 Retains

Barclays Capital Overweight 259.05 280.00 280.00 Reiterates

JP Morgan Cazenove Underweight 259.05 197.00 197.00 Reiterates

Deutsche Bank Hold 259.05 255.00 255.00 Reiterates