Legal and General Increase Dividend

The FT reports that L&G are rewarding its shareholders:

"Legal and General has increased its full-year dividend by almost a quarter in spite of the life and pensions group missing profit estimates.

The UK’s fourth-biggest insurer by market value blamed the 9.6 per cent decline in IFRS operating profit to £1bn – worse than the 5 per cent fall expected by the City – on December’s cold weather, poor trading in the Netherlands and rising annuity reserves.

But Tim Breedon, chief executive, said the figures released on Thursday “demonstrate that we’ve been able to grow the business in 2010 and at the same time generate more cash with which to pay increasing dividends”.

He added: “All L&G’s businesses – risk, savings, LGIM and international – have contributed to today’s strong numbers by writing more new business at lower cost, growing assets under management and expanding distribution.”

L&G increased its dividend by 24 per cent to 4.75p a share, beating analyst estimates of 4.5p, and following the example set by Prudential last week when it boosted its pay-out by 20 per cent."

That's nice for the shareholders, let us trust that L&G's largess is also reflected in its with profits bonuses this year on its endowment policies.