Growth in pension funds business at Legal and General Investment Management, the funds arm of the UK insurer, helped add new institutional assets of £16.2bn (€24.2bn) in the first half of this year, an increase of 51% on the same period last year.

Pension fund assets under management grew to £160bn in the first six months of 2007 from £130bn at the same point last year. LGIM had more than £253bn of total funds under management at the end of June, up from £211bn at the same time last year.