Legal & General chairman to step down in June

Legal & General chairman John Stewart has set a date of 1 June for his retirement, when he will be replaced on an interim basis by senior independent director Rudy Markham.

Markham is also leading the search for a permanent replacement and is confident of making an appointment in the coming weeks, allowing Stewart and the board to agree it was appropriate time for him to step down after six years at the helm.

At Thursday's annual shareholder meeting Julia Wilson will step up to become senior independent director and will complete the chairman succession process.

Management have had a busy week leading up to the AGM, with Wednesday seeing L&G completed the sale of its Suffolk Life business, an administrator of self-invested personal pensions, to Curtis Banks for £45m.

On Monday it announced the acquisition of a £3bn annuity portfolio from Aegon.