M&G PLC on Wednesday reported a half-year pretax loss as costs increased, but still slightly increased its interim dividend.

The London-based investment manager said it swung to a £57 million pretax loss for the first half of 2024, compared with its £101 million profit the year before.

Adjusted operating pretax profit - which includes fee-based revenue, investment return and asset management operating expenses - totalled £375 million, down 3.8% from £390 million.

M&G reported a loss from short-term valuations in investment returns of £284 million, widening from £177 million.

The company’s costs from ‘mismatches arising from misapplications of IFRS17’ meanwhile rose to £119 million from £40 million.

M&G nonetheless declared a 6.6 pence per share dividend for the period, up 20% from 6.5p the previous year.

‘Over the last 18 months, we have made meaningful progress transforming M&G by focusing on our strategic priorities: financial strength, simplification, and growth,’ commented Chief Executive Officer Andrea Rossi. ‘Against the backdrop of a challenging market environment in the first half of the year, we have delivered another resilient financial performance with adjusted operating profit and capital generation nearly matching last year’s excellent results.’

Rossi continued: ‘Our simplification agenda continues at pace, delivering £121 million in cost savings so far.

‘We have made considerable progress across all of our financial targets and, reflecting our track record of delivery and our commitment to strong shareholder outcomes, we are announcing today upgrades to our capital generation and cost savings targets.’

Going forward, M&G said it is increasing its operating capital generation target to £2.7 billion from £2.5 billion by the end of this year, and raising its cost savings target to £220 million from £200 million by the end of 2025, due to ‘the good progress we are making’.

‘We are continuing to push further on our strategic priorities, combining our Life and Wealth operations to support the acceleration of our growth plan in the UK retail market,’ Rossi said. ‘We also see growth opportunities in our international footprint and in the broadening of our product offering.

‘As we look ahead, the strong foundations we have built give me confidence in the long-term outlook for M&G.’

Shares in M&G were trading 2.3% lower at 211.20p each on Wednesday morning in London.

Copyright 2024 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.