Legal & General share price: H1 net cash rises

iNVEZZ.com, Wednesday, August 6: Legal & General Group Plc (LON:LGEN) has this morning updated investors on its first-half performance.

**Highlights from Legal & General’s statement:**
Financial highlights:
· net cash generation up 13% to £567m (h1 2013: £500m)
· operational cash generation up 8% to £578m (h1 2013: £537m)
· operating profit up 11% to £636m (h1 2013: £571m)
· profit after tax up 9% to £507m (h1 2013: £466m)
· earnings per share up 9% to 8.51p (h1 2013: 7.82p)

· return on equity 17.6% (h1 2013: 16.8%)
· interim dividend up 21% to 2.90p per share (h1 2013: 2.40p)
Nigel Wilson, Group Chief Executive, said:
“These are strong financial results with dividends once again growing over 20% and a return on equity of 17.6%. We continue to deliver good growth on all other key metrics. We are successfully executing our strategy connecting our five long-term macroeconomic and demographic trends to real business outcomes. Strong business performance across a well-diversified range of insurance, savings and investment markets underpins consistent earnings quality and dividend growth and enables us to respond positively to the ever changing political and regulatory landscape.

We were early adopters of institutional ‘slow money’ and have provided £5bn to drive major investment in housing and infrastructure. We increasingly use digital technology to power cheaper insurance, savings and investment products for customers: pension auto-enrolment, where we cap charges at 0.5% will ultimately transform welfare provision – Beveridge 2.0.

A growing number of partners from all sectors – CALA Homes, Places for People, English Cities Fund, Shelter, and government – local and central – not only share our thinking, but are working with us to deliver it.
We have the scale and the skill to play a major role investing in the fabric of the UK to drive growth and competitiveness. Our economically and socially useful products address long-term, intergenerational issues for young and old, that go to the heart of improving quality of life for individuals and families, while strategic clarity and operational excellence drive consistent improvement in shareholder returns.”
**More to follow…**