Investment chaos sees L&G slide to £56 million

The investment market chaos has hit Legal & General's post-tax profit, which slid from

But it sees opportunities in the current turmoil. The company, the UK's largest pension fund manager with £286 billion under management, continued to add new business, globally up 8% from last year to £806 million and in the UK up a similar amount.

New business at its institutional fund management division was £17.6 billion in new funds.
"Weaker equity markets inevitably create adverse investment variances which affect our reported after-tax profits: these impacts can be expected to smooth out over time," chief executive Tim Breedon said. "We are confident of our ability to continue growing profitably."

Legal & General's £1 billion share buyback programme continues, with some £764 million in shares bought. There have been concerns the scheme may not be completed because of equity market problems.

The risk business had a record half in terms of new business, Breedon said.

"We have diversified our individual protection sales away from the housing market in recent years, which has limited the impact of the difficult mortgage conditions," Breedon said.
L&G's half-yearly dividend rises 7.5% to 2.01p.