Legal & General Full Year Results 2016
Legal & General Full Year Results 2016
8 Mar 2017
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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%”.
