- Operating profit grows 12 per cent
- Dividend looks secure
Much of the reporting prior to these results focused on the retirement of Legal & General’s (LGEN) much respected chief executive, Nigel Wilson, who steps down this year after a decade in the job. The news in January obscured Legal & General’s resilience in a high inflation, higher interest rate economic environment. Resilience was clear to see in these results as the company reported a 12 per cent leap in operating profits to £2.52bn, driven by interest rate gains generated by the assets on its balance sheet. With a widening gap between capital generation and the level of its dividend payout, the company now has options for what to do with its surplus, in a way that underlines its importance as one of the FTSE 100’s key income shares.