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May 12, 2014 at 07:22 AM
(Bloomberg) — Just Retirement Group Plc said it’s cutting jobs as part of a 14 million-pound ($23.7 million) cost- saving initiative in the wake of government plans to overhaul the annuities market.
The insurer, which today reported a 50 percent drop in annuity sales since the government unveiled its plan in the March budget, announced cost savings for the next financial year, according to a statement. The shares rallied.
“It will include redundancies,” Chief Executive Officer Rodney Cook said on a conference call with journalists, without giving details.
“Activity levels appear to be stabilizing at around half of pre-budget levels. That is not good, but it’s not nearly as bad as the forecast of the death of the annuity industry.”
Shares of Just Retirement have slumped 39 percent since Chancellor Exchequer George Osborne scrapped rules in his 2014 budget that pushed retirees to buy annuities with their pension savings.
