Legal & General : L&G backs £1bn of investments in East London in housing, urban regeneration and infrastructure

23 September 2016

Legal & General has backed investments of over £1 billion in East London in 2016. It has already invested over £8 billion in: UK infrastructure; Housing and Urban Regeneration; and SME Finance, and is on track to invest £15 billion.

Legal & General invests in infrastructure to secure long-term income for pensioners and returns for shareholders. Infrastructure investment delivers a higher risk adjusted return than gilts and low yielding bonds, it boosts UK economic growth, which benefits UK business and society.

In East London, Legal & General's investments include:

• Transport for London's new £246 million headquarters in Stratford;
• Build to rent flats in Walthamstow, in partnership with PGGM, creating over 400 homes;
• Forward funding of 445 rooms for Queen Mary University of London students in Stratford for £63 million;
• DP World's London Gateway port, with the Pension Protection Fund for £400m; and
• Amazon's new fulfilment centre at Tilbury.

Legal & General is committed to modernising Britain's great cities, investing in real assets, creating real jobs, and through collaborative partnerships, delivering local economic growth.

Kerrigan Procter, Managing Director, Legal & General Retirement (photo) said: 'East London is a great place to invest. We have invested over a £1 billion of long-term capital in new assets, and are looking at many more opportunities here, and across the UK. Our direct investments are economically and socially useful, with every £1 invested in physical infrastructure generating around £3 of local economic activity.

'In a world where over $10 trillion of government bonds earn negative returns, our direct investments create local economic growth, income for pensioners, and returns for shareholders. The UK needs new infrastructure, if it's going to grow and prosper in the 21 century, and we are helping to fund and deliver it.'

The Transport for London building, is at the International Quarter in Stratford, and is part of the wider regeneration of the area, which is anticipated to create over 40,000 jobs and 11,000 new homes in the coming years. The Walthamstow build to rent development is scheduled for completion in 2018, and is part of Legal & General's partnership with PGGM, the Dutch pension fund manager, to invest £600m in build to rent homes and create a new institutional asset class. The 26-storey student accommodation development is pre-let to Queen Mary University of London and is being built on the site of a former petrol station on Stratford High Street.

The DP World's London Gateway port is the UK's first new port in over two decades, and is situated on the Thames estuary at Stanford-le-Hope, Essex. Since the start of construction, London Gateway has already created thousands of jobs in London and the South East, and is helping London to regain its premier position as one of the world's largest ports. The Amazon new fulfilment centre at Tilbury, will create 1,500 jobs and be completed during 2017.

ENDS.

For more information please contact:

Investors, please contact:

Laura Doyle, Head of Investor Relations
Tel: 020 3124 2088

Sujee Rajah, Investor Relations Manager
Tel: 020 3124 2047

Legal & General Group Plc:

Established in 1836, Legal & General is a leading provider of insurance, savings and investment management products in the UK. The Group has a market capitalisation of £13.9bn (as at 22 September 2016) and is responsible for investing £841.5bn worldwide (as at 30 June 2016) on behalf of investors, policyholders and shareholders. Legal & General has over seven million customers in the UK for life assurance, pensions, investments and general insurance plans and over one million customers in the US who rely on us for life assurance. In 2015, Legal & General's operating profit (on the IFRS basis) was £1,455m and adjusted earnings per share were 18.58p for the period, an increase of 14% and 11% respectively.

For more information on Legal & General, please see http://www.legalandgeneralgroup.com/

Forward-looking statements

This announcement may contain certain forward-looking statements relating to Legal & General, its plans and its current goals and expectations relating to future financial condition, performance and results. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances which are beyond Legal & General's control, including, among others, UK domestic and global economic and business conditions, market related risks such as fluctuations in interest rates and exchange rates, the policies and actions of regulatory and Governmental authorities, the impact of competition, the timing impact of these events and other uncertainties of future acquisition or combinations within relevant industries. As a result, Legal & General's actual future condition, performance and results may differ materially from the plans, goals and expectations set out in these forward-looking statements and persons reading this announcement should not place reliance on forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made only as at the date on which such statements are made and Legal & General Group Plc does not undertake to update forward-looking statements contained in this announcement or any other forward-looking statement it may make.