Life insurer Just Retirement is returning to the public markets four years after delisting from Aim. It is planning to raise £300 million through listing the retirement income specialist on London's main market.
The company expects an increase in new business and is raising the cash to strengthen its balance sheet with an eye on meeting future regulatory changes.
In the year to July new business sales hit £1.6 billion, a compound annual growth rate of 21% in two years, generating a £100 million underlying operating profit - up 15% since 2011.
The expected rise in new business will be driven by the UK?s demographic time-bomb. There are forecast to be some 17 million people in the UK aged 65 and over by 2035, up from 10 million in 2011, according to the Office of National Statistics. These people face limited state support and low savings rates in funding their retirement and as such more and more people are looking after themselves.
The company's products include the individually underwritten annuities market, where better annuity rates are offered to those with life threatening medical conditions. It controls some 31% of this market.
Just Retirement, which is led by a management team with more than 100 years? experience of the retirement income industry, originally became a listed company in November 2006, until 2009 when it was bought by its management with the backing of Permira Advisers.
The chart below shows how its share price performed as an Aim-quoted company. It was hit the by the global economic downturn and declared the financial year to June 2009 to be its most challenging 12 months in the company's history. That said, it still managed to increase operating profitability.
