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The market reacted with enthusiasm to Phoenix Group’s full-year outcomes in the course of March. After an detached begin to 2025, the shares jumped by greater than 10 per cent in response to the corporate’s sturdy money technology and upgraded steerage.
Tom Floor, chief govt of Phoenix’s retirement options enterprise, took benefit of the change in sentiment. The day after the group printed its figures, he offered 92,360 shares for 583p every — or a complete of £538,000. Floor joined Phoenix in January 2021 from Aviva, the place he headed up the annuities and fairness launch division.
The outlook for Phoenix isn’t clear-cut. On the one hand, the FTSE 100 insurer is making wonderful progress with its transformation programme. Progress was forward of expectations in 2024, and the upgraded steerage means the corporate now expects £1.1bn of working revenue in 2026, up from £900mn. It has additionally raised its three-year money technology goal from £4.4bn to £5.1bn.
Tight price management and a booming annuities market are serving to to get the group again into development mode, whereas property beneath administration are rising within the pensions and financial savings division.
Nonetheless, some buyers have been spooked by huge steadiness sheet shifts. In 2024, Phoenix’s IFRS shareholder fairness greater than halved to £1.2bn. Administration blamed this on its hedging technique, which is designed to guard money circulate and solvency capital, and asserted that it might not have an effect on the progressive dividend payouts. New chief monetary officer Nic Nicandrou expects shareholder fairness to develop organically from 2027 onwards.
The accounting quirk underlines the complexity of the life insurance coverage sector, nonetheless, and can stay offputting for some buyers.
