LGIM CEO to step down as firm merges investments and alts divisions

Michelle Scrimgeour held the role for five years

Michelle Scrimgeour
Michelle Scrimgeour

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Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) CEO Michelle Scrimgeour (pictured) is set to step down, while L&G plan to combine its investment division and alts capabilities into a single business.

In a statement this morning ahead of a Capital Markets Day (12 June), the firm’s parent company announced plans to bring together LGIM, its investments division, with Legal & General Capital, its alternatives platform.

LGIM has begun a ‘global search’ for a successor to Scrimgeour, who took on the role in 2019. She will stay on at the firm while the search completes.

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Meanwhile, Legal & General Capital chief executive Laura Mason has been named CEO of private markets and will oversee the merger of the two businesses alongside Scrimgeour.

L&G is targeting an £85bn growth in assets under management on its Private Markets platform by the 2028 financial year.

The group also announced a £200m share buyback for 2024, as part of new CEO António Simões’s plan to increase shareholder returns.

He took up the role at the start of 2024.

“Over the last five months we have rigorously reviewed our business, listening to investors, customers, partners and employees. This work has deepened my belief in our strong foundations and excellent potential. L&G is in prime position to respond to and benefit from major structural and societal changes,” CEO Simões said.

“Changing demographics, climate transition, economic uncertainty and technology are driving demand for trusted, experienced investors that can manage risk through the cycle, originate productive assets, and deliver returns for savers. Our vision is for a growing, simpler, better-connected L&G, focused on three core business divisions, and set apart by our shared sense of purpose and powerful synergies.

“By seizing the opportunity in Institutional Retirement while investing to scale and deepen our capabilities in Asset Management and Retail, we will evolve our business to better address society’s changing investment needs.”

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