12th Mar 2020 10:21
(Alliance News) - Retirement products firm Just Group PLC on Thursday again decided not to resume paying a dividend, but said it swung to profit in 2019.
The company also announced that Chris Gibson-Smith will retire as chair after a successor is found. The search to find a replacement for Gibson-Smith, who has been at the helm for nearly four years, is to kick off shortly.
He was previously chair of Partnership Assurance Group PLC, before it became part of Just Group in April 2016.
In the meantime, the incumbent will stand for re-election at the May annual general meeting.
Turning to its 2019 performance, Just Group said net premium revenue was 13% lower at GBP2.36 billion from GBP2.71 billion. Total revenue, which also includes net investment income, surged by more than a third to GBP3.83 billion from GBP2.86 billion in 2018.
Net investment income jumped more than tenfold to GBP1.45 billion from GBP142.6 million.
Just Group reported pretax profit of GBP368.6 million, swinging from a 2018 loss of GBP85.5 million.
Contributing to the improvement was an "investment and economic profit" of GBP173.8 million, reversing a GBP252.0 million loss in 2018.
Just Group opted not to make a full-year payout, just like in 2018. Though back in March last year, when reporting its full-year results, it said it will look to recommence payouts in 2019 at a "rebased" level of approximately one third of the 3.72 pence paid out in 2017.
Chief Executive David Richardson said: "We have a clear focus on improving the group's capital position and are making good progress. Despite operating in a tough environment we took big strides in 2019 to improve our organic capital generation and to reduce balance sheet risk. We achieved organic capital generation in the second half of the year and at the same time have accelerated our adoption of the new regulatory requirements at a lower cost than previously expected."
"Our preparations continue to ensure that we can serve our customers through the potential disruption if coronavirus spreads more widely across the UK."
Just Group shares were 8.5% lower at 52.35 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
By Eric Cunha; [email protected]
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