Legal & General Group is one of the British multinational companies, which is doing business in the financial service industry. The Headquarter of the company is in London, United States. It was founded by Sergeant John Adams and five other lawyers in 1836. The company is doing its operations in the United Kingdom, the United States, the Gulf, Europe, and Asia. Sir John Kingdom is the chairman and Nigel Wilson is the CEO of the company. The company mainly operates in financial service and asset management. Main products of the company are; Investments, Lifetime Mortgages, Pensions, Annuities, Life, and General Insurance.
It is a public listed company. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange, it is also constituent in FTSE 100 Component. The current stock price of the company is Share price 304.80 Pound, on 15 Dec 2019. The total revenue of the company is 1,264 million Pounds (2018). The total assets of the company are 1.135 trillion Pounds. [1], [2]
Threats of New Entrants
In the financial industry, there are different laws and regulations for different sectors like insurance, asset management and other sectors which make it a complex industry for new entrants. As they have to go through this long and complex procedure. As this industry is capital intensive, to take this initiative of entering this industry, new entrants may require a large startup cost and a large amount of capital for operating costs. Similarly, different existing companies have a competitive advantage of brand awareness and brand loyalty due to their services in the market. There is also some exit barriers such as large sunk cost that restrict the new entrants. Therefore, from these factors, we can conclude that threats of new entrants is low in this market.
Threats of Substitutes
As legal and general group is providing different services in the market, like loans for borrowers, insurance for those who are looking for a secure future, perpetuity funds and many other such services. Similarly, different companies also exist in the same market providing the same products with different values. In this industry, there are several companies so there may be different substitutes available in the market. Therefore, threats of substitute exists.
Bargaining Power of Buyers
As there are many buyers for each product and different countries to serve the buyer’s needs. In this case, there is competition among companies to take over one and other. Every company tries to provide extra and increase market share. The switching cost of buyers is low, so it means the buyer can easily switch among the available choices. In this regard, different companies hire different sales agents and forces for direct selling. Similarly, companies are trying to create a brand competitive edge by integrating the suppliers and barriers for new entrants. Therefore, these factors show that the bargaining power of buyer does exist in the market.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers
This industry is capital intensive, it requires a large pool of finance to start, and to do day to day operations. To fulfill this need companies look for suppliers, as the buyers are more and companies are also large in number. So, the suppliers have choices to choose where to invest. Similarly, companies need different equipment and assets to do routine operations. To fulfill this need companies contact suppliers to buy the input. As there is risk volatility in this industry. So, the suppliers influence the companies and create terms and conditions according to their will. Therefore, it shows that there is a moderate level of bargaining power of the supplier.
Competitive Rivalry
In this market, it is hard for companies to increase the profit because the low switching cost of buyers put immense pressure on companies to lower the cost and increase the market share. In this regards the profitability of companies gets effected. All of this shows that there is competition in the market. Therefore, it shows that in this industry competitive rivalry exists in the industry.
References
1 Legal & general group, 2019, about us, [online], Available at: https://www.legalandgeneralgroup.com/about-us/
2 Legal & general, 2018, 2018 results: Record £10bn annuity sales, AUM Exceeds £1tn, operating profit up 10% to £1.9bn1, [online], Available at: https://www.legalandgeneralgroup.com/media/2928/ye-18-rns_ap-internet-upload_fy2018-press-release_final_2109incbackhalf.pdf