The investment management arm of L&G saw a 19% drop in operating profit to £274m (2022: £340m) primarily due to the impact of higher interest rates on the value of assets under management.

For the group as a whole, profit after tax fell by 42% to £457m for the year (2022: £783m), according to its financial results released this morning.

As one of the world’s leading bulk annuity providers, L&G benefited from the popularity of annuities in 2023. The firm saw £13.7bn of institutional and £1.4bn of individual annuity sales during the year.

Overall retail operating profit decreased by 2% to £408m (2022: £415m). Whilst insurance operating profit was up 22% to £436m, total operating profit was down given the lower contribution from the fintech businesses.

New CEO Antonio Simoes also announced a 5% increase in the firm’s dividend per share to 20.34p (2022: 19.37p).

He said: “We are on course to achieve our five-year targets, and demonstrated resilience in challenging markets to achieve record new business volumes in pension risk  transfer, UK annuities and US protection, increasing our store of future profit. Our international assets under  management and alternative assets portfolio continue to grow, as does our position in the UK defined contribution pensions market.

“We must be as ambitious for Legal & General’s future as we are proud of our history. This is the right moment to take a fresh perspective, build on our track record and set out a vision for profitable and sustainable growth.”

With the full year operating profit for M&G as a whole missing what was expected by many analysts, the market has not had a positive reaction to L&G’s results.

At the time of writing the Legal & General Group Plc share price had fallen 2.5%.

Matt Britzman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said L&G had “missed the mark” and was disappointed not to receive more details from the new CEO on his strategy going forwards.