Legal & General, the UK insurance group, has launched a £786m (€1.25bn) rights issue to fund organic growth and has denied market speculation that it is on the lookout to buy a fund management or life assurance business.

A spokesman for L&G said: "This rights issue is not to build up a war chest for the acquisition trail. L&G's market share has grown from 3.3% to 8.7% over the past six years and the rights issue will fund organic growth."