Legal & General Q1 net cash generation rises, net inflows drop

LONDON, May 6 (Reuters) - Insurer Legal & General posted an 8 percent rise in net cash generation in its first quarter to March 31, but inflows to its asset management arm dropped, compared with a year earlier.

Net cash generation rose to 330 million pounds and operational cash generation rose 11 percent to 326 million pounds, L&G (LSE: LGEN.L - news) said in a trading statement on Wednesday.

L&G Investment Management's assets under management rose 17 percent to 736.8 billion pounds ($1.12 trillion), but net inflows in the quarter were 2.6 billion pounds, compared with 9.0 billion pounds in Q1 2014.

Individual annuity sales dropped to 99 million pounds from 244 million, following UK pension reform.

($1 = 0.6578 pounds) (Reporting by Carolyn Cohn, editing by Sinead Cruise)