Shares in Just Group (JUST) closed down 6 per cent on the day of its first-half results, despite the life assurer reporting a two-thirds jump in retirement income sales. The reason seems to be management’s warning that the Prudential Regulatory Authority’s (PRU) review into providers holding lifetime mortgages to back annuities would reduce Just’s regulatory capital position.
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That reduction would amount to around £160m, according to the group’s June estimates, equating to a 10 percentage point off the Solvency II capital ratio. That stood at 141 per cent at the end of 2017. Elsewhere, sales of defined benefit de-risking products more than doubled to £718m, while individual annuities were also up 9 per cent.