28th Feb 2014 09:19
LONDON (Alliance News) - Just Retirement Group PLC Friday said its first-half pretax profit fell by more than 50% after a decline in new annuity sales and a very good half-year in the comparative reporting period.
Reporting for the first time since its initial public offering in November 2013, Just Retirement said it made a GBP26.5 million pretax profit in the six months ended December 31, 2013, compared with GBP57.2 million for the corresponding period in the previous year, as revenue growth was outpaced by that of claims and expenses.
Revenue rose by 12% to GBP778.4 million, while claims and expenses increased by 18% to GBP754.8 million. Tough trading conditions meant annuity sales were 14% lower than the previous year.
Chief Executive Rodney Cook said figures in 2012 had been hard to match.
"The normal patterns of sales in the annuity market during 2012 were significantly disrupted due to the introduction of gender neutral pricing and the retail distribution review. This has given both the market and Just Retirement very challenging comparative figures against which to measure first-half performance, but these results are in line with our expectations," Cook said in a statement.
The company reaffirmed its plan to start making dividend payments during the second half of 2014, which its said would represent two thirds of the dividend based on the results for the full current financial year.
Just Retirement shares were Friday quoted up 1.7% at 244.05 pence.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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