| Prudential records high sales despite chief overthrow |
|
|
The dismissal of Prudential chief executive, Jonathan Bloomer last month, did not in the least dampen the spirits of Prudential, what with it recording a 12 per cent sales rise in 2005’s first quarter in Europe, owing to the high unit-linked bond and annuity demand. Prudential also stated that its group sales had shot up by 11% to £478m till March 31 this year.
Jonathan Bloomer, who will be replaced by HBOS finance director, Mark Tucker, will be attending the Pru AGM scheduled for May 5 and will also address shareholders and answer their queries. May 5th will be the last day of Bloomer with the company.
Bloomer was expelled out of the Pru as angered institutional investors ran a campaign against Bloomer for his sudden decision of raising £1bn for UK growth last October. This plan of his sparked off major dissent amongst city investors as the utilisation of such a heavy amount of money for growth in Britain clearly conflicted with Prudential’s Asian focus.
Interestingly, Mark Wood, the chief executive of the Prudential in UK seemed to take on some blame for the miscommunication regarding the British business to investors and said that “We’ve all got to take responsibility, in a sense, for something that clearly went wrong.”
Divulging details of its expansion plans in Britain, Prudential notified that it was considering a foray into pension and protection insurance markets which it had earlier dismissed as unfeasible. These developments are expected to be financed by the infamous £1bn cash call of last year that apparently sent Bloomer home.
Posted
on : Fri, 22 Apr 2005 00:00 GMT | Insurance News
By : Rob Davis
|
| |
| Related |
|
|
|
