Legal & General Group (LGEN.L) — Company Research

Last Updated: 27 October 2026

Legal & General Group is a UK retirement, savings and asset management group founded in 1836. It runs three businesses: Institutional Retirement, the UK's largest writer of pension risk transfer (taking over company pension schemes' liabilities), Asset Management, which looks after £1.2 trillion, and Retail, which sells workplace pensions, individual annuities and life protection. Since the last version of this report (10 June 2026) L&G has reported first-half core operating profit up 7%, raised its 2026 earnings guidance, finished the first £600m half of its £1.2bn share buyback and started the second, refinanced £500m of debt and completed a £1.7bn buy-in with the UBS (UK) pension plan. Every figure below comes from L&G's results announcements, annual reports and RNS notifications. There are no analyst opinions, price targets or ratings anywhere in it.

Share prices, and figures worked out from them, are not shown for London-listed companies on ChartsView.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Ticker / exchange	LGEN — London Stock Exchange
Sector	Financials — pension risk transfer, asset management, workplace pensions and protection
Revenue (FY2025)	£10,462m IFRS total revenue from continuing operations (insurance revenue £9,222m, fund management and investment contract fees £908m, other operational income £332m); £42,783m gross income including investment return†
Core operating profit (FY2025)	£1,623m, up 6% (FY2024 restated: £1,534m); H1 2026 £918m, up 7%
IFRS profit after tax (FY2025)	£592m attributable to equity holders (FY2024: £191m); H1 2026 £1,856m, including a £1,398m gain on selling the US business
EPS (FY2025)	Basic 9.99p; core operating EPS 20.93p, up 9%; H1 2026 core operating EPS 12.15p, up 11%
Dividend per share (FY2025)	21.79p (6.12p interim plus 15.67p final), up 2%; 2026 interim 6.24p, paid 25 September 2026
Solvency II coverage ratio	201% at 30 June 2026 (31 December 2025: 203%); operating range 160–190%
Assets under management	£1,242bn at 30 June 2026, including £79bn of private markets
Employees	About 10,500 colleagues, per the CEO's letter in the 2025 Annual Report
CEO / Leadership	António Simões, Group Chief Executive; Andrew Kail, Group Chief Financial Officer; Scott Wheway, Chair (since 21 May 2026)
Shares in issue	5,406,312,084 after buyback purchases in the week to 23 October 2026 (RNS, 26 October 2026)

† L&G's own "total revenue" under IFRS 17 excludes investment return. ChartsView's gross income figure is the reported "insurance and investment result" before the change in investment contract liabilities, plus fees and other operational income, so that it can be compared with data-vendor totals. See Section 5.

2. The Bull and Bear Case

Bull Case

• Earnings guidance raised: core operating EPS rose 11% to 12.15p in H1 2026 and management now expects 2026 growth above the top of its 6–9% target range.
• Large capital returns: the £1.2bn buyback is the biggest in L&G's history; the first £600m was completed on 11 September 2026, and the group targets more than £5bn of returns over 2025–2027.
• Pension risk transfer leadership: L&G had written or was exclusive on £5.7bn of global PRT by the end of July 2026, and on 13 October 2026 completed a £1.7bn buy-in with the UBS (UK) Group Pension Plan.
• Asset Management improving: Asset Management operating profit rose 10% to £222m in H1 2026, fee-related earnings rose 37% and the cost-income ratio fell to 71%.
• Store of future profit: £12,983m of contractual service margin and risk adjustment at 30 June 2026 will be released into profit over the life of existing contracts.

Bear Case

• Slower UK PRT market: management now expects 2026 UK PRT market volumes below the £50bn it previously anticipated, and L&G's H1 2026 PRT premiums fell to £2,147m from £3,437m.
• Solvency ratio lower: the Solvency II ratio fell to 201% at 30 June 2026 from 232% at the end of 2024 after the buyback and the US sale, and debt leverage was 33.9%.
• Asset Management outflows: Asset Management had net outflows of £25.1bn in H1 2026 and its fee margin is only 9.6 basis points.
• Slow dividend growth: the dividend policy is 2% growth a year, so returns depend heavily on buybacks.

3. Revenue Segments

L&G reports three core divisions plus Corporate Investments and central items. The percentages below are each division's share of FY2025 IFRS total revenue from continuing operations (£10,462m), from the segment revenue note in the FY2025 results. Retail combines the Insurance (£2,147m) and Retail Retirement (£1,719m) revenue lines.

Segment	% of revenue	What it is
Institutional Retirement	53.9%	Pension risk transfer in the UK and abroad: buy-ins and buyouts that take on company defined benefit pension liabilities and the assets backing them. Revenue £5,643m and core operating profit £1,168m (up 6%) in FY2025; £646m in H1 2026, up 5%.
Retail	37.0%	Workplace defined contribution pensions (£128bn of assets at 30 June 2026), individual annuities, life protection and lifetime mortgages. Revenue £3,866m and core operating profit £447m (up 4%) in FY2025; £248m in H1 2026, up 5%.
Asset Management	10.6%	Index, active fixed income and private markets funds for institutional and wholesale clients, plus money managed for the rest of the group. Revenue £1,106m (£879m external) and operating profit £402m in FY2025; £222m in H1 2026, up 10%.
Corporate Investments and other	−1.5%	Legacy direct investments being run down (about £0.5bn of assets left) and inter-segment eliminations; revenue −£153m in FY2025.

Group debt costs were £229m in FY2025. Compare UK financial names on the ChartsView Live Charts page.

4. Business Model and Moat

How it makes money. Institutional Retirement receives a premium for taking on pension liabilities and earns a margin by investing the assets, largely through its own Asset Management arm, in bonds, private credit and property. Asset Management earns fees on £1.2 trillion of internal and external money. Retail collects protection premiums, annuity purchases and pension contributions. Under IFRS 17 the profit on each new annuity is held in the contractual service margin and released over the life of the contract, which is why L&G manages itself on core operating profit rather than the volatile IFRS result.

Capital and cash. Operational surplus generation under Solvency II was £1,530m in FY2025 and £790m in H1 2026, against £3.4bn of the £5–6bn targeted over 2025–2027. New UK PRT business was written at about 1% capital strain in the plan period so far, against a limit of 4%. Treasury assets and other shareholder cash were £3,607m at 30 June 2026.

The moat. About 98% of H1 2026 UK PRT volumes came from schemes that were already Asset Management clients, and about 95% of workplace pension assets are managed in-house. That link between the pension investment business and the annuity business, together with scale, a 190-year-old brand and long trustee relationships, is hard for newer insurers to copy.

Capital return policy. L&G targets 2% annual dividend growth, more than £5bn of shareholder returns over 2025–2027 and a Solvency II ratio within a 160–190% operating range.

5. Financial Health

L&G reports in pounds sterling under IFRS and adopted IFRS 17 from 2023, restating 2022. Under IFRS 17 its own "total revenue" line excludes investment return, while data vendors include it. The revenue column below therefore shows a gross income total: the reported "insurance and investment result" before the change in investment contract liabilities, plus fees from fund management and investment contracts and other operational income. Because most of it is investment return that belongs to policyholders, it swings sharply with markets. L&G's own IFRS 17 total revenue was £11,166m (2022), £12,111m (2023), £10,657m (2024, continuing operations) and £10,462m (2025).

Fiscal Year	Revenue (£m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2021	45,450‡	n/m	34.19p	34.19p†	18.45p	£4,256m
FY2022	(75,646)	n/m	12.84p	12.84p†	19.37p	£4,338m
FY2023	31,237	n/m	7.35p	19.04p	20.34p	£4,280m
FY2024	25,887	−17.1%	2.89p	19.20p	21.36p	£4,308m
FY2025	42,783	+65.3%	9.99p	20.93p	21.79p	£4,297m

† L&G introduced core operating EPS with its 2024 results; for FY2021 and FY2022 basic EPS is repeated so the table stays complete. Adjusted EPS is core operating EPS; FY2024 is restated to exclude the US business sold in 2026 (20.23p as first reported). ‡ FY2021 is "total income" under the old IFRS 4 basis and is not directly comparable; its EPS is also on the IFRS 4 basis. FY2022 is the IFRS 17 restated figure and was negative because bond values fell sharply in the 2022 gilt crisis. FY2023 includes the US businesses; FY2024 and FY2025 are continuing operations as re-presented in the FY2025 results, so the FY2024 change crosses a basis change. Long-term debt is core borrowings on the balance sheet at each year end; operational borrowings were a further £601m at 31 December 2025.

Quarter / Half	Revenue (£m)	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
H1 2026	30,924	12.15p	33.06p
H2 2025 (derived)	31,776	about 9.99p	about 4.72p
H1 2025	11,007	10.94p	5.27p
FY2025 total	42,783	20.93p	9.99p

L&G reports half-yearly. H2 2025 is the full year minus the first half and is approximate for EPS. Revenue is gross income on the same basis as the annual table; H1 2025 is as re-presented in the H1 2026 interim report. IFRS 17 total revenue was £5,690m in H1 2026 against £5,085m in H1 2025. H1 2026 basic EPS includes the £1,398m profit on selling the US protection and US PRT businesses to Meiji Yasuda; basic EPS from continuing operations was 8.01p (H1 2025: 4.48p).

Balance sheet at 30 June 2026. Core borrowings were £4,310m and operational borrowings £713m. Cash and cash equivalents, which are mostly policyholder money, were £14,517m. Equity attributable to owners of the parent was £2,156m, with a further £495m of restricted Tier 1 notes. Solvency II own funds were £12,903m against a solvency capital requirement of £6,422m, a surplus of £6,481m.

Outlook. At the H1 2026 results management said it expects 2026 core operating EPS growth to be above the top end of its 6–9% range and raised its asset optimisation guidance to more than £400m a year.

6. Valuation Metrics

Raw metrics, October 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Core operating profit	£1,623m for FY2025; £918m for H1 2026, up 7%
Core operating EPS	20.93p for FY2025; 12.15p for H1 2026, up 11%
Operational surplus generation	£1,530m for FY2025; £790m for H1 2026 (14.16p per share, up 7%)
Solvency II coverage ratio	201% at 30 June 2026; surplus £6,481m
Solvency II debt leverage	33.9% at 30 June 2026
Contractual service margin	£12,091m at 30 June 2026 (store of future profit including risk adjustment £12,983m)
Operating return on equity	70.0% for H1 2026, per the interim report
Dividend per share	21.79p for FY2025; 6.24p interim for 2026, up 2%
Shares in issue	5,406,312,084 (RNS, 26 October 2026)
Short interest (% of float)	4.27% of issued share capital: the FCA's aggregate net short position for Legal & General, position date 22 October 2026. Since 13 July 2026 the FCA publishes only anonymised totals built from positions of 0.2% or more. Verify at fca.org.uk.
Days to cover	— not published for this period; UK short disclosures do not include days to cover

7. What Are They Building

A simpler group after the US sale. The sale of the US protection business and US PRT to Meiji Yasuda for US$2.3bn completed on 2 February 2026. Meiji Yasuda holds 20% of the US PRT business, L&G keeps 80% through reinsurance, and the two firms are working together on US pension deals. Meiji Yasuda also agreed to take a 5% economic interest in L&G.

More pension risk transfer. The target is £50–65bn of UK PRT over 2024–2028 at under 4% capital strain; £24.3bn had been written by mid-2026 with a quote pipeline of about £18bn. The £1.7bn UBS (UK) buy-in for more than 7,000 members is the largest UK PRT deal announced in 2026.

Higher-fee asset management. L&G is aiming for £500–600m of Asset Management operating profit and more than £85bn of private markets assets by 2028 (£79bn at 30 June 2026), and a fee margin in double digits. Its ETF assets passed US$30bn in October 2026 and the NTR Clean Power Transition IV fund reached a €330m first close on 15 October 2026.

Workplace pensions. The target is £40–50bn of workplace net flows over 2024–2028, of which £15.7bn has been achieved, with monthly contributions of £0.9bn expected to pass £1bn by the end of 2027. On 26 October 2026 L&G launched standalone critical illness cover.

8. Competitive Landscape

L&G competes with UK insurers and specialist annuity writers for pension risk transfer and with global fund managers for institutional money.

Peer	Key 2025 metric
Aviva (AV.)	H1 2026 group operating profit £1,326m, up 24%; Solvency II shareholder cover ratio 176% (half-year results, 14 August 2026)
M&G (MNG)	H1 2026 adjusted operating profit £435m, up 15% (interim results, 3 September 2026)
Standard Life plc, formerly Phoenix Group	H1 2026 operating cash generation £745m, up 6%; IFRS adjusted operating profit £563m (half-year results, 7 September 2026)
Rothesay (private)	2025 new business premiums £5.2bn (2024: £15.7bn); solvency coverage 246% (full-year trading update)
Just Group	Taken over by Brookfield Wealth Solutions for about £2.4bn; completed 1 April 2026 and delisted 2 April 2026 (Brookfield release)

LCP data show UK buy-ins of £38.2bn in 2025. L&G wrote £10.4bn of UK PRT in 2025, more than Rothesay's £5.2bn of total new business.

9. Leadership and Insider Activity

António Simões has been Group Chief Executive (CEO) since January 2024. Andrew Kail is Group Chief Financial Officer and Scott Wheway became Chair at the close of the 21 May 2026 AGM, succeeding Sir John Kingman. Mark Jordy was elected a director at the AGM; Kirsty Cooper CBE joins the board as an independent non-executive director on 1 November 2026 and Stephen Shelley on 1 December 2026. Jamie Ovenden was appointed Group Chief Technology, Data and Innovation Officer on 3 September 2026.

The following director and PDMR dealings were disclosed through RNS notifications in 2026. Several other routine plan and dividend reinvestment notices were filed between April and September 2026.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Plan Type
Mark Jordy (Non-executive director)	01 Oct 2026	Purchase	3,671	Terms of appointment (fees in shares)
Andrew Kail (Group CFO)	01 Oct 2026	Purchase	76	Employee Share Plan
George Lewis; Laura Wade-Gery; Nilufer Kheraj (Non-executive directors)	25 Sep 2026	Dividend reinvestment	1,504; 1,276; 1,167	Dividend reinvestment plan
Andrew Kail; Katie Worgan; Gareth Mee; Maria Alvarez-Scott; Emma Holden	03 Aug 2026	Purchase	73; 71; 73; 71; 71	Employee Share Plan
António Simões (Group CEO)	26 Mar 2026	Transfer to spouse, nil consideration	188,097	Personal holding (beneficial interest unchanged)
Chris Knight (Group Chief Risk Officer)	23 Mar 2026	Market sale	100,000	Personal holding

BlackRock disclosed a total interest of 10.03% on 26 August 2026 (8.08% in voting shares and 1.95% through instruments), up from 5.07%.

10. Key Risks

• Credit cycle (Market): annuities are backed by a large portfolio of corporate bonds, private credit and property; a recession with downgrades and defaults would hit the IFRS result and the Solvency II surplus.
• Capital headroom (Financial): the Solvency II ratio has fallen from 232% at the end of 2024 to 201%, so heavy PRT writing, market stress or rule changes could slow future buybacks.
• Longevity and assumptions (Insurance): annuity contracts run for decades; if pensioners live longer than assumed, or inflation and discount-rate assumptions change, reserves may need strengthening.
• PRT competition and timing (Commercial): Rothesay, PIC, Aviva, Standard Life and Brookfield-owned Just compete for the same schemes, and management has already said some large 2026 deals are moving into 2027.
• Asset Management execution (Operational): net outflows of £25.1bn in H1 2026 and a 9.6 basis point fee margin leave the 2028 profit target of £500–600m dependent on private markets growth.
• Pensions and regulatory change (Regulatory): UK pension reforms, Solvency UK changes and FCA conduct rules can change the economics of workplace pensions, annuities and fees.

11. Recent Developments

• 08 Jul 2026 — Debt refinanced. L&G accepted £499,999,175 nominal of Tier 2 and senior notes in its tender offers, settled on 10 July, after issuing £500m of new restricted Tier 1 notes that settled on 7 July.
• 05 Aug 2026 — H1 2026 results. Core operating profit rose 7% to £918m and core operating EPS 11% to 12.15p; 2026 EPS growth guidance was raised to above the top of the 6–9% range and the interim dividend rose 2% to 6.24p.
• 26 Aug 2026 — BlackRock raises its interest. A TR-1 notification showed BlackRock's total interest at 10.03%, up from 5.07%.
• 11 Sep 2026 — First buyback tranche completed. L&G finished the first £600m of its £1.2bn programme, buying 225,507,499 shares, and started the second £600m tranche on 14 September, due to end by 22 March 2027.
• 25 Sep 2026 — Interim dividend paid. The 6.24p 2026 interim dividend was paid.
• 13 Oct 2026 — £1.7bn UBS buy-in. L&G completed a £1.7bn buy-in with the UBS (UK) Group Pension Plan covering more than 7,000 members, the largest UK PRT deal announced in 2026.
• 26 Oct 2026 — New protection product. L&G launched standalone critical illness cover.

12. Key Dates to Watch

• 01 Nov 2026 — Kirsty Cooper CBE joins the board as an independent non-executive director
• 16 Nov 2026 — Q3 2026 trading update (L&G financial calendar in the H1 2026 results)
• 01 Dec 2026 — Stephen Shelley joins the board as an independent non-executive director
• Expected Mar 2027 — FY2026 full-year results and final dividend (FY2025 results were published on 11 March 2026)
• 22 Mar 2027 — latest end date for the second £600m buyback tranche

Bank of England decisions and UK inflation data, which move gilt yields and annuity pricing, are on the ChartsView Economic Calendar. Discuss UK insurers with other investors in the ChartsView Forum.

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