LONDON (Reuters) -British insurer and asset manager M&G said on Tuesday it would offer shareholders a 500 million pound ($654.30 million) buyback programme as capital generation beat targets.
The life insurer, which split off from Prudential in 2019, achieved total capital generation of 2.8 billion pounds over two years. M&G has a capital generation goal of 2.2 billion pounds by the end of 2022.
“Our focus remains on delivering long-term sustainable growth and attractive returns to shareholders through a balanced approach to capital management, while investing in priority areas alongside further internationalisation and modernisation of the business,” CEO John Foley said in a statement.
Insurers and asset managers have generally performed well during the COVID-19 pandemic, with economies and markets boosted by government and central bank stimulus.
M&G’s operating profit for 2021 dropped 9% to 721 million pounds, hurt by changes to longevity assumptions. This was however ahead of a 686 million pounds forecast, according to a company-supplied consensus poll.
Assets under management and administration edged up 0.8% to 370 billion pounds, slightly above the forecast 363 billion pounds. Net client inflows were 600 million pounds.
M&G said it would pay a second interim dividend of 12.2 pence per share and total dividend of 18.3 pence.
($1 = 0.7642 pounds)
(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn, editing by Sinead Cruise)
