Legal & General (L&G) has outstripped its total bulk annuity sales from last year in just the first six months of 2016 after acquiring a £3 billion back-book from Aegon.
Following the transaction in May, L&G has today reported bulk annuity business of £3.6 billion in the first half of 2016, compared with £2.4 billion in 2015.
‘Bulk annuity transactions continue to be an important way for L&G to deploy capital to help our UK clients, and use the premiums to invest in real assets such as UK infrastructure and direct lending,’ managing director of L&G retirement Kerrigan Procter (pictured) said.
Individual annuity sales at L&G in the first half of 2016 were just under £200 million, and were outstripped by lifetime mortgage sales of more than £200m.
L&G said that the firm had faced ‘minimal disruption’ from uncertainty caused by EU referendum.
‘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,’ Procter said.
In the immediate aftermath of the vote, L&G issued an update saying that, based on a 50-50 probability of voting remain or leave, it had de-risked its asset portfolios, including through the traded equities held in its shareholder funds.
Source: New Model Adviser