L&G shrugs off Brexit with bumper annuities performance

Insurer Legal & General brushed off Brexit concerns today, revealing that its retirement arm sold £3.6 billion of bulk annuities in the first half of the year.

Kerrigan Procter, managing director of Legal & General Retirement. Picture: Contributed

The number is up £1bn on the full-year bulk annuity sales figure of £2.4bn for 2015, as the company added that there had been “minimal disruption” caused by the European Union referendum held a week ago.

New bulk annuity transactions totalling £250m were executed in June, L&G said.

On Tuesday, L&G appointed John Kingman, former second permanent secretary to the Treasury, as its new chairman to replace Rudy Markham, when it also said it was prepared for any Brexit fallout.

Kerrigan Procter, managing director of Legal & General Retirement, 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.”