LV announces bumper profits for year ended December 2015, with strong growth in life and pensions division but a small dip in general insurance performance thanks to the December storms
Insurance, pensions and investment company LV has today revealed that its profits have more than trebled for the year ended December 2015.
The company announced profits before tax of £124m for 2015, up 235 per cent from £37m in 2014.
"The challenging market conditions experienced in 2014 with depressed investment returns and pressure on home insurance rates, have continued in 2015," said Mike Rogers, group chief executive of LV. "Against this backdrop LV has performed very strongly."
During its latest financial year, LV also launched LV Legal Services to provide legal solutions and acquired a majority stake in robo-adviser Wealth Wizards.
However, operating profits in the company's general insurance arm dipped to £72m, down 21.7 per cent from £92m in 2014, thanks in part to £36m in costs caused by claims from the storms last December.
While acknowledging that the general insurance branch has been affected by a number of factors during 2015, Rogers added: "The business is in good shape and we’re confident that the management actions taken during 2015 position it well to deliver profitable growth in 2016 and beyond."
The company also pulled in an operating profit of £41m in its life and pensions division, up from a loss of £7m the year before.
Rogers continued: "The impact of government pensions’ reforms continues to be felt in the retirement market where we’ve seen a marked change in buying behaviour with more pensions savers shopping around for retirement income solutions. New business volumes have grown significantly and we continue to develop new products and services to position LV at the forefront of the changing pensions environment."