London, May 9, 2026, 22:04 BST
Legal & General Group Plc closed out Friday barely budging, as its 8.67% dividend yield and £1.2 billion buyback remain front of mind heading into a shareholder vote slated for late May. After the London market wrapped, shares were quoted at 251.40 pence to sell and 251.45 pence to buy. The insurer has a 15.67p final dividend set for payout on June 4.
Timing comes into play, with UK stocks sliding ahead of the weekend. The FTSE 100 finished 0.4% down at 10,233.07, marking its third consecutive weekly drop. Investors juggled renewed Gulf unrest, $100-plus oil, and setbacks for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in local elections.
L&G faces the immediate question: can handing cash back to shareholders keep demand on track as markets get bumpy? Data from the company’s buyback page put 28.7 million shares bought last week through May 1, averaging £2.5143 per share. That brings the running total to 83.6 million shares repurchased, for a combined outlay of £210.97 million.
Shareholders will see the plan again on May 21 as L&G convenes its annual general meeting in London. After that, a general meeting focused on a proposed capital reduction—purely a legal move, not an operational update—will take place.
Stronger earnings are running up against a slimmer capital buffer. Back in March, L&G posted a core operating profit of £1.623 billion, marking a 6% rise, alongside £11.8 billion in global pension risk transfer deals and £1.2 trillion in assets managed. The group’s Solvency II coverage ratio ended the year at 203%, slipping to 210% pro forma after factoring in the Meiji Yasuda deal and buyback—down from 232% in 2024.
The drop in the capital ratio has investors on edge. KBW’s William Hawkins didn’t mince words, calling the solvency number a “big miss.” Chief Financial Officer Andrew Kail, for his part, described the ratio as still “comfortable,” according to the Financial Times after the March results. Financial Times
Management insists this isn’t just a numbers game. L&G tapped Rob Groves as chief investment officer for its Institutional Retirement arm on May 5—a move aimed at boosting its pension risk transfer business, where insurers absorb company pension liabilities. “Strengthens our ability to grow the business,” Institutional Retirement CEO Gareth Mee said of the hire. Legal & General Group
New mandates landed on the asset-management desk this week. L&G picked up a contract to oversee over £300 million for Queen’s University Belfast, spanning the university’s general reserves, endowment funds, and its open defined benefit pension plan. Mark Johnson, who leads UK institutional and wholesale asset management at L&G, said the university has “entrusted” the firm with safeguarding its long-term financial future. Legal & General Group
Executives at L&G are looking abroad for their next phase of growth. Back in April, Chief Executive Antonio Simoes told Reuters the group wants to double its Asia-sourced assets under management to around $500 billion. He described Asia as L&G’s fastest-growing international market and put it plainly: “We’re very bullish on Asia right now.” Reuters
Still, the risks loom large. The Bank of England’s regulatory division wants to raise the capital requirements on funded reinsurance — arrangements where life insurers transfer risk to offshore reinsurers — pushing the threshold to roughly 10%, up from the current 2% to 4%. Reuters identified Aviva, L&G, and Standard Life as key UK life insurers involved in the space. That kind of move, if it goes through, could shake up the economics for some pension business, and it comes as competition for big retirement mandates remains intense.
Legal & General remains pegged as an income-and-execution story, not a straightforward rally—at least for now. Shares managed to stay afloat on a sluggish Friday. Next up: whether the cadence of the buyback, the June dividend, and May’s voting results are enough to keep capital worries from resurfacing.
