Legal & General Investment Management's assets under management grew 4% over the six months and 3.5% over the year ended June 30 to £984.8 billion ($1.28 trillion).
A financial update from Legal & General Group, the money manager's parent company, said the firm recorded external net inflows of £14.6 billion for the six-month period, compared with £21.8 billion in net inflows for the six months ended Dec. 31 and £21.7 billion in net inflows for the six months ended June 30, 2017.
AUM from international clients was up 0.6% for the six-month period and up 15.6% for the year, to £229.3 billion. Net inflows across the international business totaled £9.9 billion for the first six months of 2018, compared with £15.1 billion for the six months ended Dec. 31 and £17.9 billion for the comparable period ended June 30, 2017.
Growth in the international business was predominantly driven by U.S. clients, with net inflows totaling £8.3 billion across LGIM's solutions, active fixed-income and index strategies. Europe-based clients added £500 million in net inflows, but the Persian Gulf-based business saw new outflows of £1.4 billion, while £2.5 million in net inflows were recorded from clients in Asia.
LGIM recorded £18.6 billion of net outflows in its U.K. institutional business compared to £4.3 billion outflows in the first half of 2017 due to U.K. defined benefit clients implementing derisking strategies together with the expected loss of £6 billion of assets from one local government pension fund, the update said.
LGIM's defined contribution business attracted net inflows of £3.5 billion for the six months ended June 30, compared with £1.3 billion for the six months ended Dec. 31 and £1.7 billion for the six months ended June 30, 2017.
The remaining inflows were in U.K. retail strategies.
"Operating profit from divisions increased 7% to £1.1 billion, and (return on equity) was 20.3%. We have increased our dividend to £4.60 (per share), in line with our formulaic approach, an increase of 7%," said Nigel Wilson, group CEO of Legal & General Group, in a news release. "We expect to have an exceptionally busy second half of the year. We are currently actively quoting on over £20 billion of U.K. pension risk transfer deals, including over £7 billion of transactions in exclusive negotiations expected to close in the second half. LGIM's momentum continues as it expands in the United States and extends its global footprint in Asia."
