Legal & General (LGEN) is preparing to say goodbye to its long-serving and much respected chief executive, Sir Nigel Wilson, in December, but from a share price perspective, the second half of his decade-plus tenure has proved far less auspicious than his first. The shares have underperformed over the past year in particular, first as the company narrowly avoided being caught up in the liability-driven investing (LDI) scandal unwittingly unleashed by the government’s disastrous mini-Budget last autumn, then as higher rates hit certain parts of its business.
However, what matters most for income investors is whether the company’s dividend – which, given the current forward yield of 8.8 per cent is one of the few inflation-beating payouts available on the FTSE – will keep flowing and growing during a period of reorganisation and transition to new management, a looser regulatory regime and a wider invested asset base as its investment management arm expands into alternative asset classes. With so much potential change afoot, what can investors expect?