LONDON, May 15, 2026, 13:10 BST
Legal & General Group Plc shares held close to Thursday’s sharp rally in London on Friday as takeover talk lingered around the FTSE 100 insurer and asset manager, even after Chief Executive António Simões said the company was not considering a sale or break-up.
The stock was quoted at 263.10p to sell and 263.20p to buy early Friday afternoon, down 0.27% on the day after a 6.16% gain on Thursday. AJ Bell data put Legal & General’s market value at about 14.56 billion pounds.
The move matters because L&G has become a test case for a wider question in London finance: whether large UK insurers with annuity books, asset-management arms and steady dividends can stay attractive as listed companies while private-capital buyers push deeper into pensions.
Reuters reported on Thursday that L&G shares rose more than 5% after the Financial Times said possible buying interest was building. Reuters also reported that an L&G spokesperson declined to comment on the FT report.
Simões pushed back hard in comments cited by the FT. “There’s no discussions or anything else going on,” he said, according to Sharecast. Asked whether L&G had been approached, he said: “I am 100% focused on executing my strategy.” Sharecast
That strategy is still being judged by investors. L&G said in March that 2025 core operating profit rose 6% to 1.62 billion pounds, that its pro forma Solvency II coverage ratio was 210%, and that it would return more than 5 billion pounds to shareholders over 2025-2027. Solvency II is a capital-strength measure used by insurers.
The March update did not end the doubts. Morningstar, citing Alliance News, said L&G’s solvency ratio missed Visible Alpha consensus and quoted RBC Capital Markets analysts calling the miss “significant.” L&G also wrote down asset values by 304 million pounds after higher discount rates weighed on some holdings. Morningstar
Pension risk transfer, or PRT, sits at the centre of the story. In a PRT deal, an insurer takes over some or all of a company pension scheme’s promises in return for a premium. L&G reported 11.8 billion pounds of global PRT volumes in 2025, including 10.4 billion pounds in the UK.
Competition is getting tougher. Brookfield Wealth Solutions completed its 2.4 billion-pound acquisition of Just Group on April 1 and said Just was positioned to scale in the UK pension risk transfer market, where it estimated 40 billion to 50 billion pounds of liabilities could move to insurers each year.
Athora, backed by Apollo, completed its acquisition of Pension Insurance Corporation Group in March, making PIC its UK insurance business and giving it access to more long-term capital and asset-origination capabilities. That adds another large, private-capital-backed competitor to the market where L&G has long been strong.
Rates are another live variable. Kalshi’s June Bank of England market showed an 80% implied chance of no rate change and 16% for a 1-25 basis-point hike, while Polymarket put no change at 88% and a 25-basis-point hike at 12% for the June 18 meeting. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
The risk case is plain. A full takeover would be hard, politically sensitive and exposed to regulation, not least because L&G owns large amounts of gilts, or UK government bonds, according to reports citing the FT. Higher rates, credit stress or weaker annuity margins could also make the dividend and buyback story harder to defend.
For now, L&G has no sale process to point to, only a louder market conversation. The next formal investor event is close: the company lists its annual general meeting and general meeting for May 21.
