Legal & General, the UK insurer, defied the collapse of individual annuities in the first half with a 20% year-on-year rise in its annuity assets to £39 billion, thanks to bulk sales to company pension schemes.

L&G's bulk-annuities boom helped the insurance giant to net profits of £507 million in the first half of 2014, it reported on Wednesday morning, up 9% from the same period last year.