Proactiveinvestors United Kingdom

Prudential beats consensus forecast for first half operating profit

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 09:52:00 +0100

Prudential PLC (LON:PRU) has beaten a consensus forecast of a £968 million operating profit for the first half, posting £1.06 billion profit, a 25 percent year-on year rise.

In a statement, the insurer said it has continued to concentrate on the fast growing and highly profitable markets of South-East Asia, and the positive momentum of 2010 has been maintained during the first half of this year, with new business profit up 17 percent in Asia and 22 percent in Asia ex-India.

Chief executive Tidjane Thiam said: “We expect to see continued, profitable and cash generative growth in the second half of 2011. We remain on course to deliver the 2013 profit growth and cash generation objectives we outlined at our investor day last year."

Profit from new business rose 20 percent to £1.07 billion.

Prudential is raising the interim dividend by 20 percent to 7.95 pence per share.

Indonesia has become Prudential’s largest business in Asia in terms of sales, it said, and profits from there were up 36 percent year-on-year at £95 million.
“There are clear macroeconomic concerns today in the Western world,” the CEO said, citing sovereign debt issues in the US and the uro zone and the associated fiscal difficulties.
“While these issues may have some temporary adverse effects across the globe, we continue to believe that our substantial presence in the growing and developing markets across Asia put us in a position to deliver relative outperformance in the medium term,” he added.

Prudential blows £450 million on failed attempt to buy Asian unit of AIG

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 07:40:00 +0100

Senior management at the Prudential (LSE:PRU) will have a lot of grovelling to do over the next few months after the company confirmed this morning that it had entered into negotiations to terminate its proposed acquisition of AIG’s Asian unit.

When Prudential first announced the acquisition, which included a massive fundraising to support the transaction, it was met with anger from many of the company’s institutional shareholders. Despite serious concerns about the risks in completing such a large transaction, Prudential nonetheless ploughed ahead, accused by many commentators of trying to “railroad” the deal through investors.

This morning the FTSE 100 insurance group confirmed that it was now trying to pull out of the deal after it failed in its attempt to cut the offer price. Before Prudential made an offer for AIG’s Asian unit, the US Government’s plan was to list it on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

“If, as expected, the agreement with AIG is terminated, the Board of Prudential will not put any resolutions to the court and shareholder meetings convened for 7 June 2010 and it will not be proceeding with the rights issue or other financing relating to the Transaction,” the company confirmed this morning.

An Annual General Meeting on 7 June 2010 will go ahead as planned, and will no doubt be a heated affair. One of the subjects to likely be raised at the AGM is the price tag for Prudential to exit the deal – a whopping £450 million, which includes a break fee of £152.5 million.

"While AIA was an excellent opportunity, since we announced the potential transaction we have seen significant falls in the markets. We listened carefully to shareholders over the price and initiated a renegotiation of the terms with AIG. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to reach agreement so we feel it is in the best interest of our shareholders not to pursue this opportunity. We are therefore withdrawing from the transaction,” Harvey McGrath, Chairman of Prudential stated.

Premium risk at Prudential

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:47:00 +0000

Insurance giant Prudential has stolen the headlines this week, after their decision to buy AIA, the Asian life business of US insurer AIG, has attracted a mixed response from shareholders.

Prudential seeks listing in Hong Kong for merged Prudential/AIA business

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:02:00 +0000

Insurer Prudential PLC (LSE: PRU) said that further to the announcement on 1 March 2010 regarding the reverse takeover of Prudential by AIA Group Ltd, it has made an application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for the listing of its shares. It is now aiming to have the listing effective prior to launch of the rights issue announced on 1 March 2010.

The listing will be as a dual-primary listing alongside its primary listing of ordinary shares in London. Prudential is not proposing to offer new ordinary shares in connection with the listing other than those being offered under the rights issue.

Prudential confirmed that it has entered into foreign exchange hedging arrangements in respect of its requirement to convert the pounds sterling proceeds of the rights issue into US dollars, which is the currency in which Prudential must pay the cash element of the consideration.

Prudential acquires UOB life insurance business, enters strategic partnership

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:18:00 +0000

Insurer Prudential (LSE: PRU) has entered a 12 year strategic partnership with United Overseas Bank Limited to develop a regional bancassurance business to distribute its life investment, savings and protection insurance products through UOB’s 414 bank branches across Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, and also agrees to acquire UOB Life Assurance in Singapore for £192 million in cash.

The company has already established a solid footing in the Singapore, possessing a strong distribution network of tied agency and distribution partners, looking to enhance its position through the combination of UOB Life Assurance with its existing businesses.

“Our agreement with UOB enhances our presence in Asia and strengthens our regional platform. This bancassurance partnership offers us significant new profitable growth opportunities in Singapore and Indonesia, and substantially increases our scale in Thailand, a key market in the region... this transaction will allow us to continue to create significant shareholder value in some of the most dynamic and attractive Asian markets,” said chief executive of Prudential, Tidjane Thiam.

Prudential Q3 sales drop but beat expectations, seeing signs of recovery in Asia

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:52:00 +0000

Insurer Prudential PLC reported a 9 percent fall in third-quarter sales to £700 million, beating the consensus of analysts’ expectations of £653 million, saying there are some encouraging signs of recovery, particularly from its Asian operations.

The figure for the quarter to end-September 2009 was lifted by the 66 percent year-on-year increase in sales of its US unit Jackson National Life to £249 million and a 4 percent rise in Asian sales to £293 million. UK sales fell 22 percent to £157 million. The comparative figure was lifted by an annuity transaction.

Insurance sales in the first nine months of the year were down 9 percent at £2.02 billion pounds.

Prudential said there were indications of improvement in the global economy, but said it would be several quarters before a positive trend could be established. CEO Tidjane Thiam commented: "We believe that the economic environment will remain uncertain for a while."

“We are becoming progressively more optimistic about the economic situation in Asia, following the turbulence of the previous 12 months. There are some encouraging signs of recovery,” he added.

Prudential names Rob Devey CEO of UK and Europe operations

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:27:00 +0100

Financial services group Prudential PLC (LSE: PRU) announced the appointment of Rob Devey as chief executive, Prudential UK and Europe, and to the board.

Devey will succeed Nick Prettejohn who has decided to leave the group in September 2009.

He is joining Prudential from Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LLOY) where he has worked since 2002 in a number of senior leadership roles across insurance and retail banking including as managing director, Direct Channels UK Retail Banking, MD of HBOS Financial Services and MD of HBOS General Insurance.