Legal & General has become the UK’s first £1 trillion asset manager as the financial services group sold a record £10 billion of annuities in the last year.
Its full year results revealed profit after tax was down 3% to £1,827 million from £1,891 million.
Operating profit was up 10% to £1,902 million – excluding £433 million set aside to take account of clients living longer.
Earnings per share were up 7% to 24.74p.
CEO Nigel Wilson said: “Legal & General’s consistent strategy, market leading businesses, balance sheet strength and high quality people have enabled us to deliver eight years of compound annual profit growth of over 10%.
“2018 saw political uncertainty, asset market declines and slowing economic growth, but we are resilient and performed strongly. We became the UK’s first £1 trillion investment manager, executed a record £9 billion of pension risk transfer deals and invested billions in the UK’s future infrastructure and cities. Abroad, we grew US protection new business annual premiums by 12% and increased international assets by 13% to £258bn.
“Excluding our £433 million positive mortality release, operating profit was up 10% to £1.9bn and we had EPS growth of 7%, DPS growth of 7%, book value growth of 13% and an RoE of 23%. We are a globally trusted brand. Our strategy positions us well despite the broader environment, our current trading is strong and we expect this momentum to continue in 2019.”
