Profits up at Preston pension firm

Preston based Life and Pensions firm Chesnara have reported an increase in pre-tax profit.

The company said the increase has been driven by the strength of its domestic business and the acquisition of Legal & General’s Dutch insurance business.

Chesnara said pretax profit rose to £89.6m in 2017, from £40.7m a year earlier.

A statement from the firm said: “We now have sufficient scale and presence in both the UK and the Netherlands to continue our focus on acquisition activity in those territories. We also remain open minded about new territories.

“During 2017 we have delivered against each of our core strategic objectives thanks to economic tailwinds, good operational delivery and a number of one-off items including the successful completion of the acquisition of Legal & General Nederland.”

John Deane, Chief Executive said: “2017 has been another good year for Chesnara during which we completed the acquisition of Legal and General Nederland, now successfully rebranded Scildon, and made good progress on integrating it into our business.

“The acquisition has contributed to an impressive set of results on all financial metrics, including IFRS, Economic Value and Solvency II. In particular I am pleased to report an Economic Value growth, excluding the acquisition gain, of 9.1%.

“All divisions have made significant contributions to cash and value generation. The UK business had again generated cash ahead of expectations and Movestic continues to deliver significant growth, which has resulted in further cash generation.”

“As a result of the positive performance in the year, Chesnara expects total dividends from its divisions of £70.0m, including an inaugural Scildon dividend of £22.2m.”