Legal & General Group PLC on Wednesday reported lower half-year profit, but it still progressed its dividend.

The London-based insurer and asset manager said attributable pretax profit fell by 20% to £316 million in the six months that ended June 30 from £393 million a year before.

Core operating profit was £849 million, edging up from £844 million, and core operating earnings per share was 10.58 pence, up from 10.52p, but more negative investment variance compared to a year before lowered pretax profit.

Operating return on equity improved to 35.4% from 28.6%. L&G said its Solvency II coverage ratio was a strong 223% with a surplus of £8.8 billion, slightly down from 224% and £9.2 billion a year before.

In L&G’s asset management division, assets under management totalled £1.14 billion as of June 30, down 2.9% from £1.17 billion a year before. Within this, private markets assets totalled £52 billion, up from £48 billion.

‘We are making clear progress on delivering against our strategy, notably in the establishment of a single asset manager,’ said Chief Executive Officer Antonio Simoes.

‘We have good momentum in private markets, launching a new fund to offer diversified exposure to defined-contribution pension scheme members, and establishing our affordable housing fund, leveraging pension capital to build new homes.’

L&G declared an interim dividend of 6.00 pence, up 5.1% from 5.71p a year before and in line with its plan for 5% dividend growth in 2024 and 2% per annum from 2025 to 2027.

L&G also plans a £200 million share buyback this year, followed by similar buybacks in 2025 to 2027.

L&G shares were up 1.1% to 219.00p on Thursday morning in London. The company has a £13.52 billion market capitalisation.

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