Legal & General Grp – L&G Half Year Results 2022 Part 1

09 August 2022

 

H1 2022 Results: Continued strong performance -8% growth in Operating profit and EPS, 21% ROE and SII coverage ratio of 212%

Continued delivery of strong financial performance^[1]

• Operating profit of £1,160m, up 8%(H1 2021: £1,079m)
• Earnings per share of 19.28p, up 8% on H1 2021(17.78p)
• Profit after tax^[2]of £1,153m (H1 2021: £1,065m) and R eturn on equity of 21.3% (H1 2021: 22.0%)
• Solvency II coverage ratio^[3]of 212% (H1 2021: 182%)
• Interim dividend of 5.44p, up 5%(H1 2021: 5.18p)

Growing contribution to our five-year (2020-2024) ambitions^[4]

• Cash generation of £1.0bn, up 22% year on year. Capital generation of £0.9bn, up 14% year on year
• Cumulative cash and capital generation of £4.3bn and £4.1bn respectively, against our ambition of £8.0-9.0bn by 2024
• Cumulative dividends declared £2.5bn(H1 2022: £324m, 2020-21 £2,147m) against our ambition of £5.6-5.9bn by 2024
• Strong PRT new business volumes and LGIM net flows
• Global PRT new business premiums of £4.4bn(H1 2021: £3.1bn), including our largest ever US transaction
• LGIM record H1 external net flows of £65.6bn(H1 2021: £27.4bn), with AUM down to £1.3tn due to market movements
• Protection premiums of £1,605m(H1 2021: £1,500m) and Individual annuity premiums of £453m (H1 2021: £483m)

A strong and resilient balance sheet

• No defaults in H1 or for the last 13 years. £2.7bn credit default provision remains unutilised^[5]
• 99% investment grade£73.2bn annuity bond portfolio
• 100% of scheduled cashflowsreceived from our Direct Investments
• Strong and growing IFRS and Solvency II balance sheet

Long-term, growth-oriented, and highly synergistic business model

• An established track record:HY11 to HY22 CAGR of 11% in EPS, 11% in DPS and 8% in book value per share
• Highly synergistic:four focused divisions that create a virtuous circle of internal demand and supply, supporting c20% ROE
• Long-term and predictable value creation: 40+ year duration business with earnings driven by a growing stock of assets
• Attractive global growth markets:retirement solutions ($57tn), asset management ($149tn), climate change ($20tn)^[6]
• A longstanding commitment to Inclusive Capitalism and a leader in ESG: rated #1 Life & Health insurer by ShareAction

“We've made a good start to the year, with operating profit and EPS up 8%, cash and capital generation up double digits, DPS up 5% and a return on equity of 21%. We have delivered for our institutional clients and retail customers, while generating good volumes and margins in a buoyant PRT market and continuing to scale LGC at pace – both in the UK and now also in the US – originating assets for our own business and for third parties, whilst also delivering a positive outcome for the economies where we invest. Our balance sheet is strong and highly resilient, with a solvency ratio of 212% and with 100% of cash flows received from our Direct Investments. We are committed to providing financial security for our customers and colleagues in a tough economic climate and remain confident in our ability to grow profits sustainably and at attractive returns over the long-term.”

Sir Nigel Wilson, Group Chief Executive

 

 

 

Financial summary

£m	H1 2022	H1 2021		Growth %
Analysis of operating profit
Legal & General Retirement Institutional (LGRI)	560	525		7
Legal & General Capital (LGC)	263	250		5
Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM)	200	204		(2)
Retail[7]	332	292		14
Operating profit from divisions	1,355	1,271		7
Group debt costs	(108)	(120)		10
Group investment projects and expenses	(87)	(72)		(21)
Operating profit[8]	1,160	1,079		8
Investment and other variances (incl. minority interests)	207	241		n/a
Profit before tax attributable to equity holders[9]	1,367	1,320		4
Profit after tax attributable to equity holders	1,153	1,065		8
Earnings per share (p)	19.28	17.78		8
Book value per share (p)	186	164		13
Interim dividend per share (p)	5.44	5.18		5

 

 

 

H1 2022 Financial performance

Income statement

Year to date operating performance is in line with our expectations, with H1 2022 operating profit up 8% to £1,160m (H1 2021: £1,079m).   All four of our divisions are well positioned to execute on compelling structural market opportunities to deliver further profitable growth over the medium and long-term, notwithstanding market volatility.

LGRI delivered operating profit growth of 7% to £560m (H1 2021: £525m), underpinned by the performance of our annuity portfolio.  We executed well, writing £4,449m of global PRT at attractive Solvency II new business margins of 8.7%.^[10]

LGC operating profit increased 5% to £263m (H1 2021: £250m), driven by strong performance in our alternative asset portfolio.  Our housing businesses – notably CALA and Affordable Homes – have delivered another period of strong trading performance. Our Alternative Finance (Pemberton) and Venture Capital investments also continue to perform strongly.  

LGIM delivered operating profit of £200m (H1 2021: £204m), a resilient result in light of market conditions. Assets under management decreased to £1,289.7bn (H1 2021: £1,326.8bn). However, external net flows were strong: £65.6bn (H1 2021: £27.4bn), of which over half were from International clients, and with continued growth in higher margin areas such as thematic ETFs, fixed income, and multi-asset.   The cost income ratio (59%) reflects the impact of challenged markets on revenue (H1 2021: 58%). 

Retail operating profit increased 14% to £332m (H1 2021: £292m), driven by the on-going release from operations from the growing UK protection and individual annuity portfolios, in addition to valuation uplifts in two of our retail Fintech businesses over H1 2022.  In the US, after significant claims in Q1 2022, mortality returned to normal levels in Q2.  Total Covid claims over H1 2022 were in line with the £57m provision set up at year end. 

Profit before tax attributable to equity holders^[11] was £1,367m (H1 2021: £1,320m), reflecting positive investment variance of £207m (H1 2021: £241m).  The key drivers of this positive investment variance are from the formulaic impact of rising interest rates on the Insurance reserves and strong portfolio performance in the annuity portfolio, partially offset by volatile global equity markets impacting LGC.

 

Balance sheet and asset portfolio

The Group's Solvency II operational surplus generation was up 14% at £946m (H1 2021: £831m).  New business strain was £(121)m (H1 2021: £(158)m) which results in net surplus generation of £825m (H1 2021: £673m).  UK PRT business has been written at a capital strain of less than 4%.  We achieved self-sustainability on the UK annuity portfolio in 2020 and 2021 and expect to be self-sustaining again in 2022.

The Group reported a Solvency II coverage ratio^[12] of 212% at H1 2022 (FY 2021: 187%, H1 2021: 182%) which, in addition to the contribution from net surplus generation, reflects the impact of market movements, principally from the non-economic impact of higher interest rates on the valuation of our balance sheet^[13], partially offset by payment of the 2021 final dividend (£792m).

Our IFRS return on equity of 21.3% (H1 2021: 22.0%) reflects the continued strong performance of our business.^[14]

Our diversified, actively managed annuity portfolio has continued to perform resiliently with no defaults.  The annuity portfolio's direct investments continue to perform strongly, with 100% of scheduled cash-flows paid year to date, reflecting the high quality of our counterparty exposure. 

  

Group Strategy

Legal & General has established expertise in asset origination (LGC) and asset management (LGIM), and in the provision of retirement and protection solutions to corporates and individuals (LGRI and Retail).  We operate at scale and are strongly positioned to capitalise on significant growth opportunities across our chosen markets through our four main divisions:

Division	Provision	Description
LGRI	Retirement Solutions	A leading international manager of institutional Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) business
LGC	Asset Origination	An alternative asset origination platform generating attractive shareholder returns
LGIM	Asset Management	A global £1.3tn asset manager with deep expertise in DB and DC pensions
Retail*	Retirement & Protection Solutions	A leading provider of UK retail retirement and protection solutions and US brokerage term life insurance

* Note: as of 1^st January 2022, and as highlighted previously, LGRR and LGI (our two retail businesses) were combined into one division, Retail.  Under the leadership of Bernie Hickman, this division covers the savings, protection and retirement needs of our c12 million retail policyholders and workplace members.

 

A powerful business model

We have a unique and highly synergistic business model, which continues to drive our strong return on equity.  Legal & General provides powerful asset origination and management capabilities directly to clients. These capabilities also underpin our leading retirement and protection solutions:

• LGRIis a market leader in UK PRT and a top ten player in the US PRT market, with annuity assets of £78.8bn.It provides long-term, captive AUM to LGIM.  As noted, the annuity portfolio is continually being enhanced through the supply of alternative assets originated by LGC. 
• LGCinvests across four main asset classes (Specialist Commercial Real Estate, Clean Energy, Housing and SME Finance) to generate attractive risk-adjusted shareholder returns and to create alternative assets with which to back our annuity portfolio.  LGC is also increasingly attracting third party capital investment directly and through collaboration with LGIM to meet the growing client demand for alternative assets.
• LGIMis a leading global asset manager, ranking 11th in the world^[15] with £1.3tn of AUM of which £468bn, or 36%, are International assets.  LGIM is a leading provider of UK and US Defined Benefit (DB) de-risking solutions.  It is uniquely positioned to support DB clients across the full range of pension endgame destinations, including PRT with LGRI.  78% of LGRI's PRT transactions over the past three years were from existing LGIM clients.^[16]   LGIM is also the market leader in UK Defined Contribution ( DC) pension scheme clients with DC AUM of £129.4bn – the leading player in a market with significant growth potential, with total UK DC assets expected to surpass £1.2tn by 2031.^[17]
• Retailis a leading provider of UK retail retirement and protection solutions, and US brokerage term life insurance. The UK retail retirement business offers Workplace Savings, annuities, income drawdown and lifetime mortgages (LTM).  Our UK and US insurance businesses generate day one surplus capital which partially offsets annuity new business strain.  Retail is also an internal centre of excellence in technology, and manages a portfolio of successful, strategic Fintech business investments.

The synergies within and across our businesses drive profits and fuel future growth.  The establishment of our Retail division is enabling us to better serve the needs of our retail customers and drive further synergies.  

The integrated nature of our business model means that we have relationships with clients and customers that can and do last for decades.  For example, an Index or Liability Driven Investing DB corporate client in LGIM typically becomes a PRT client after 14 years.  LGRI will then typically have a relationship with that client for another 30 to 40 years.  Equally, Retail Retirement and LGIM may have a 30-40-year relationship with a customer during the DC accumulation phase, and then extend that relationship for another 15-30 years during the decumulation phase across a suite of decumulation products including individual annuities, lifetime mortgages and drawdown.

The Group continues to build out, in a measured fashion, its international retirement solutions franchise.  We have made excellent progress in the US over the last decade and will continue to build out our established businesses (LGRI, LGIM, Retail) in that market. LGIM continues to make good progress against its international expansion plans in Europe.  Kerrigan Procter is co-ordinating the Group's expansion plans in Asia.

 

 

A long-term commitment to Sustainability, ESG and Inclusive Capitalism

Our purpose is to improve the lives of customers, build a better society for the long-term and create value for our shareholders. This inspires us to use our assets in an economically, environmentally and socially useful way to benefit society – what we call Inclusive Capitalism. At a time when many in society are facing increasing economic hardship, we believe Inclusive Capitalism matters more than ever.

Our philosophy underpins our approach to Sustainability and to ESG ( Environmental, Social, and Governance factors).^[18] We think about Sustainability, and the long-term ESG impact of our business, in terms of:

• How we invest proprietary assets. ^[19]   Our ambition is to reduce our proprietary asset portfolio greenhouse gas emission intensity by half by 2030 and to net zero carbon by 2050 and we are on track to set our full suite of science-based targets in 2022 for publication in 2023.  In 2021 we reduced the greenhouse gas intensity of the Group's balance sheet by 17.0% versus 2020, although this has been driven in part by COVID-19 and market volatility impacts.^[20]  We continue to make environmentally and socially useful investments.  As at H1 2022, we have invested £1.4bn in clean energy and £8.0bn in social infrastructure.   For more information please see our latest Climate Report, compliant with recommendations by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)^[21],  and our latest Sustainability Report, which describes our activity in investing for positive social, economic and health outcomes. ¹⁵
• How we influence as one of the world's largest asset managers with£ 3 trillion AUM .  We have £271.2bn AUM in ESG strategies and in H1 2022 we cast over 45,000 stewardship votes as we continued to encourage investee companies to behave responsibly.^[22],[23]  LGIM is rated A+ for responsible investment strategy & active ownership from the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and ranked as one of the highest performers among asset managers for its approach to stewardship and holding companies to account on climate change by both FinanceMap and Majority Action.
• How our businesses operate .  We are committed to supporting our customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and society at large.  In the current economic environment, we recognise that support is more critical now than ever.  For information on how we are supporting our stakeholders, see pages 38-52 of our Sustainability report.^[24]   We have committed to reducing the carbon emission intensity of our operating businesses.  Our ambition is to operate our offices and business travel with net zero emissions from 2030, and for all our new homes to be net zero operational carbon from 2030.  ESG criteria are included in executives' objectives and remuneration schemes.

 

Outlook

Medium-term growth: ambitious and deliverable

Our strategy has delivered strong returns for our shareholders over time. It has demonstrated resilience through the pandemic and positions us well to navigate – and even benefit from – the prevailing market environment. We are confident we can continue to deliver profitable growth as we execute on our strategy . 

We set out our five-year ambitions at our Capital Markets event in November 2020.  Cumulatively, over the period 2020-2024, our financial ambitions are for^[25] :

1. Cash and capital generation significantly to exceed dividends (we intend to generate £8.0bn – £9.0bn of both cash and capital, and to pay dividends of £5.6bn – £5.9bn).^[26]
2. Earnings per Share to grow faster than dividends, with the dividend growing at low to mid-single digits from 2021.
3. Net capital surplus generation (i.e., including new business strain) to exceed dividends.

We are now half-way through our ambition period and are on track to achieve or beat our cumulative cash and capital ambitions.   In H1 2022, we have achieved 22% growth in cash generation and 14% growth in capital generation.  Since the beginning of 2020 to date, we have achieved £4.3bn of cash generation, £4.1bn of capital generation and declared £2.5bn of dividends.  We are confident that we will consistently grow cash and capital faster than our dividend commitment.  The jaws between net capital surplus generation and the dividend are widening, providing attractive capital optionality.  Even zero growth in cash and capital generation from now to 2024 would still see us meet our cash and capital generation ambitions.  

We aim to deliver long-term, profitable growth across the Group .  Our asset origination and asset management businesses, LGC and LGIM, operate in attractive and profitable markets, and maintain a strong commitment to ESG-aligned investing.  With proven asset expertise in specialist commercial real estate, clean energy, housing and SME finance, LGC provides unique asset origination capabilities in sectors that have significant growth potential, which produce yield-creating assets that drive our annuity business and which appeal to third party investors.  LGIM offers a range of investment solutions for institutional and wholesale clients and is expanding geographically and into new channels.  The annuity portfolios provide highly predictable, stable cash flows from their growing back-books.  Retail is applying technological innovation to sustain its UK leadership, to grow in the US and to continue to expand into adjacent markets.  The creation of a new Retail division enables us to increase our focus on serving the savings, protection and retirement needs of our retail customers.

We remain confident in our strategy and in our ability to deliver resilient, organic growth, supported by our strong competitive positioning in attractive and growing markets.  Our confidence in our dividend paying capacity is underpinned by the Group's strong balance sheet, which has a £2.7bn IFRS credit default reserve and Solvency II surplus regulatory capital of £9.2bn, significant buffers to absorb a market downturn.  We have a proven operating model which is reinforced by robust risk management practices.

Confident in achieving our ambitions

We remain confident in achieving our five-year (2020-2024) cumulative financial ambitions.  In H1 2022, we continued to build on the good start we made in 2020 and 2021,delivering double digit growth in both cash and capital generation.  

LGC and LGIM provide powerful asset origination and asset management capabilities directly to clients.  These same capabilities also underpin our leading retirement and protection solutions.  LGC has numerous investment opportunities across underserved asset classes and is continuing to scale the portfolio at pace.  LGC intends to grow shareholder alternative AUM to c£5bn, with a blended portfolio return of 10-12%, by 2025.  It also aspires to grow third party AUM to £25-30bn and to grow LGC operating profit to £600-700m by 2025.  LGIM continues to focus on attracting higher margin net flows and on diversifying and further internationalising its business. The business seeks to grow profits in the range of 3-6% per annum, absent market shocks such as that experienced in the first half of this year. 

LGRI wrote good levels of business at strong margins in H1 2022.  Demand for global PRT is growing, as rising interest rates and widening credit spreads reduce pension deficits and allow more funds to consider de-risking.  As such, advisers such as WTW and LCP are bullish on the prospects for PRT for the rest of 2022 and beyond.^[27]  We are well placed to participate. We continue to expect to write £40-50bn of UK PRT and $10bn of International PRT over a five-year period.  More generally, a key competitive advantage is our ability to originate direct investments. This provides us with significant optionality.  We can use these direct investments to create value in writing new annuity business, and/or by using them to increase returns on the back-book.

In Retail, we continue to target mid-single digit growth in revenues across our UK protection businesses, and to target average double digit growth in US new business sales out to 2025.  The longer-term outlook for workplace savings, individual annuities and lifetime mortgages remains attractive, driven respectively by ongoing growth in the DC market and by an increasing consumer requirement to look to multiple sources of wealth to fund retirement.  However, the lifetime mortgage market is becoming more competitive, and we will maintain pricing discipline at the expense of volumes if required.  

We are pleased with the further progress we have made in H1 2022 and are confident in our ability to deliver further profitable growth going forwards. We are well-positioned to support the UK Government's two flagship policies of “Levelling Up” and “Addressing Climate Change”. 

We will continue to maintain a defensive and diversified asset portfolio and a long-term investment horizon, supporting all our stakeholders by delivering Inclusive Capitalism through investments – both for our own portfolio and for clients – in areas such as infrastructure, clean energy and affordable housing, and by providing products to support individuals' financial resilience.

Business segment outlook

Legal & General Institutional Retirement (LGRI)

LGRI participates in the global pension risk transfer (PRT) market, focusing on corporate defined benefit (DB) pension plans in the UK, the US, Canada, Ireland and the Netherlands, which together have around £8 trillion of pension liabilities due to ageing demographics.

We write direct business in the UK and US and are market leaders in the UK.  We are supported by LGIM's long-standing DB client relationships and investment capabilities and LGC's asset origination capabilities, as well as wide-ranging skills across the Group which enhance our asset strategy and product innovation.  During H1 2022, 74% by volume (40% by count) of our UK transactions were with LGIM clients, demonstrating the strength of our client relationships and the competitive advantage provided by our unique position as the only firm operating across the full pension de-risking journey.

The UK is our primary market and it is the most mature PRT market globally with £2.4 trillion of UK DB pension liabilities, of which only c13% have been transferred to insurance companies to date.^[28]  This leaves a sizeable opportunity for future market growth, which has been fuelled by rising interest rates and widening credit spreads reducing pension deficits and allowing more schemes to consider de-risking sooner than anticipated.  Improved funding levels has seen an acceleration in demand for de-risking solutions from companies and pension plans: we expect the total UK PRT market to be c£35bn in 2022, with scope for a larger market dependent on a handful of bigger schemes.^[29]  In terms of medium-term outlook, market commentators anticipate between £30bn-£50bn of UK PRT demand per annum over the period to 2025, again highlighting the size of the opportunity.^[30]  We continue to expect to write £40bn to £50bn of new UK PRT over 5 years, but will continue to remain disciplined in our pricing and deployment of capital. 

The US represents a further, significant market opportunity, with $3.8 trillion of DB liabilities, of which only c7% have transacted to date.^[31]  Since our market entry in 2015, our US business has written more than $7bn of PRT spanning 80 clients with 6 repeat clients. In H1 2022 we wrote our largest ever US deal (over $550m).  We also actively quoted on selective Canadian, Irish and Dutch PRT opportunities and wrote our third Canadian deal in H1 2022.  We are the only insurer providing PRT directly to pension plans across the UK and US.  Our ambition is to write more than $10bn of international PRT over the five years from 2020-2024.

In addition to our source of new business emerging from LGIM LDI clients, our other competitive advantage is in originating assets via LGC, lifetime mortgages via Retail and sourcing assets via LGIM.  LGC's asset creation is now beginning to scale and it is on track to deliver c£1bn of new assets by the end of 2022.  This strong asset creation capability across the Group provides us with optionality to maximise shareholder value, either by deploying assets against new business – to improve pricing and margins – or by applying them to increase the returns on the back-book. 

As the annuity portfolio scales, the growing amount of capital generated by the in-force book offsets both the capital investment required to fund new business and the portfolio's contribution to a progressive Group dividend, i.e. it is self-sustaining. The UK annuity portfolio achievedself-sustainability in both 2020 and 2021.  Whilst we expect to achieve self-sustainability again in 2022, driven by our growing operational surplus generation, it is not something we necessarily aim to achieve in every year.  The achievement of self-sustainability in any one year will vary depending on new business volumes and asset yields.  Our ambition is, however, for net surplus generation to exceed dividends for the Group over the period 2020-2024.

Legal & General Capital (LGC)

LGC , the Group's alternative asset origination platform, will continue to deploy shareholder capital in a range of underserved areas of the real economy that are backed by long-term structural trends.  LGC has three fundamental objectives: 1) profit and value generation within LGC for shareholders; 2) asset creation to back the Group's annuity liabilities and meet demand from LGIM's third party clients; and 3) a focus on ESG, securing long lasting value for society.  LGC continues to make a substantial contribution to shareholder value creation and is well positioned to drive further meaningful growth as its underlying businesses and investments continue to scale and mature. 

LGC is on track against its ambition to invest and manage over £30bn of alternative AUM by 2025, with an upgraded blended portfolio return target of 10-12% (previously 8-10%).  In combination with the contribution from the Traded Portfolio, LGC aims to deliver operating profit of £600-700m in 2025.  Additionally, we plan to increase fee-generating third party capital to £25-30bn (H1 2022: £15.6bn).  We expect our existing platforms (Pemberton, Build-to-Rent, NTR) to continue to manage the majority of third-party AUM, building on their impressive growth to-date , but our ambition also includes incremental opportunities in Clean Energy, Later Living, Data Centres and our exciting new investment in the US, Ancora L&G, which is focused on working with anchor institutions (such as universities or research facilities) to acquire, manage and develop life science and technology focused real estate and innovation districts. 

LGC's asset classes that include specialist commercial real estate, housing, clean energy, and SME finance have all been selected given the long term need for capital in these sectors, giving us a long-term opportunity to create assets:  In the UK an estimated 340,000 new homes are needed each year, there are 1.2m people on the social housing list and 21% of homes in the private rented sector fail Decent Homes standard.  Globally, an estimated $5tn a year is needed to fund measures to fight climate change.  Through place-based social investment, LGC is creating much needed jobs, homes and infrastructure, driving growth, skills and innovation, and contributing towards a cleaner, greener future:

• The specialist commercial real estate portfolio includes capital-light urban regeneration (funded by LGRI or LGIM third parties), digital infrastructure and science and technology-focused real estate in the UK through Bruntwood SciTech and more recently in the US through Ancora L&G.  Partnering with universities, local authorities and private sector experts, we have invested across twenty UK towns and cities, creating jobs, driving economic growth and revitalising local communities.
• As a leading provider of homes, with a commitment to tackling the affordability gap and the undersupply of housing (estimated to be around 340,000 homes required annually) across the UK, LGC's housing platform continues to expand across all tenures, ages and demographics, leveraging both traditional and modular construction in order to revolutionise and speed up delivery for all. We are well positioned to scale in order to achieve our long-term ambitions: 1) to deliver 10,000 multi-tenure homes per year (including over 3,000 traditional build to sell homes, 3,000 affordable and modular homes each, and 1,000 suburban rental homes); and 2) to develop c5,000 build to rent homes in our urban pipeline and 5,000 later living homes in our JV pipeline with NatWest Group Pension Fund.  To ensure that the homes we build are future-proofed and sustainable, we have committed that all our new homes will be operationally carbon emission-free from 2030.
• In the clean energy sector, we are focused on investing selectively into attractive growth equity and low-carbon infrastructure opportunities.  We are confident that our considered and selective approach to clean energy investing will continue to yield results in what can be a highly competitive sector.  Growth equity targets early-stage scale-up companies that deliver innovative clean technologies required for a successful energy transition.  Low-carbon infrastructure targets the renewable energy infrastructure investments needed to accelerate progress towards a low-cost and low-carbon economy. 
• In SME Finance, we are continuing to support UK and European innovation, investing in the real economy and technological innovation in two SME Finance business areas: Alternative Finance – via our 40% stake in Pemberton, an alternative credit manager – and Venture Capital – via our Fund of Funds platform and via LGC's ownershipof Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV), a direct investment platform .  Our SME Finance businesses are well positioned to scale in these highly attractive structural growth segments.