Legal & General plans to cut 1,000 jobs by the middle of next year, about a tenth of the British insurance and pensions firm’s workforce. António Simões, the chief executive, is wielding the axe as part of his attempts to create a “leaner organisation” since taking over from longtime CEO Nigel Wilson in January 2024. L&G described the move as “the next stage of that transformation”.
The London-headquartered firm told staff on Wednesday that it had begun moves to eliminate about 1,000 roles by mid-2027, which had first been reported by Bloomberg News. Most of L&G’s 10,000 employees are based in the UK. The programme will initially involve voluntary redundancies in the UK but L&G will consider mandatory job cuts depending on the take-up.
The fund management division, which oversees £1.2tn in assets, is excluded as it has its own restructuring plan. Simões, who previously worked for Santander and HSBC, announced a sharper focus on L&G’s booming pensions arm in June 2024 and reduced the group’s four businesses to three, by merging its asset management divisions. It sold several “non-strategic” assets, the biggest of which was the housebuilder Cala Homes, along with legacy land and real estate.
He also brought in a new executive team and pledged to return more than £5bn to shareholders between 2025 and 2027 through dividends and share buybacks. Simões told employees in an email: “Over the past two-and-a-half years, we have made significant progress executing our strategy, simplifying L&G, establishing three core businesses, and creating a more focused business. The spokesperson added: “We recognise and take seriously the impact on colleagues and are committed to supporting our people throughout the process and consulting with our unions.” The company expects £500bn of transactions in the UK pensions market over the next decade, as employers transfer their old defined benefit pension plans to insurers and pension companies.
L&G said it was also benefiting from strong auto-enrolment of staff in their companies’ pension schemes, with about £1bn of new inflows each month.
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