18th Jul 2023 08:26
(Alliance News) - Just Group PLC on Tuesday said retirement income sales more than doubled in a "consistently busy" first half of 2023, amid "unstoppable trends" in the company's favour.
Just Group is a Surrey, England-based financial services group focused on the UK retirement income market.
It said total retirement income more than doubled to GBP1.90 billion from GBP879 million a year before. Within this, sales of 'defined-benefit de-risking' services to pension schemes was GBP1.43 billion, up from GBP574 million, while sales of 'guaranteed income for life' products to retail customers was GBP470 million, up 54% from GBP305 million.
"The retail annuity market is buoyant, as higher interest rates have increased the guaranteed returns from annuities, and made them significantly more attractive to financial advisers and customers," Just Group explained.
A total of 35 defined-benefit de-risking transactions were completed in the recent six months, compared to 14 transactions a year before. "The DB market has been consistently busy this year, and we expect this momentum to continue," the company said.
Just Group is "highly confident of achieving our financial ambitions for the full year", it said.
Chief Executive David Richardson said: "We are exceptionally well positioned to continue benefiting from the unstoppable trends and positive developments in both our markets. Our ability to take advantage of these trends and execute have further increased our confidence in Just's ability to deliver 15% growth in underlying operating profit per annum, on average over the medium term."
Just Group will report its full interim results on August 15.
Shares in Just Group were up 6.8% at 82.44 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.
By Will Neill, Alliance News reporter
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