With CEOs like these, Prudential certainly doesn’t need any more critics.
Here, hot off the FT’s presses, or rather, computers, on Wednesday, is news that doesn’t augur well for one of the biggest insurance sector deals this decade:
AIA’s chief executive has told friends and industry executives that he would quit if the UK’s Prudential succeeded in its $35.5bn (£24.6bn) takeover of the Asian businesses of AIG.
Mark Wilson has said he would step down once the deal closed because the proposed combination of the two Asian businesses was “unworkable”.
Hong Kong-based Mr Wilson, 43, joined AIA from Axa in 2006 and boasts more than a decade of senior management experience in the Asian insurance industry.
One person said: “Mark remains loyal to AIA, but doesn’t plan to stay with the merged group because he feels it is a disaster waiting to happen.
“Many colleagues feel the same way.”
If he walks, Wilson would join Steve Roder and Peter Cashin, AIA’s finance and legal chiefs respectively, who were leading the company’s abortive Hong Kong listing and quit in March.
As the FT notes, news of Wilson’s intention will spark fears that other senior AIA staff could also depart, “leaving the Pru short of management depth as it moves to integrate the operation through a complex transaction”.
The news also follows reports that the US Treasury is working on contingency plans to float the Asian unit of AIG, in case the Pru’s AIA bid fails.
Reuters reported on Monday, citing two UK newspapers, that US officials have been working on the plans since the first signs of problems with the Pru’s planned acquisition of AIA, when the UK’s FSA watchdog forced a tweak in the bid earlier this month, according to the Sunday Times.
The Independent on Sunday, meanwhile, said that AIG had asked Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank to refresh their analysis of the AIA float plan.
Read more about Wilson’s remarkable outburst and the implications for Prudential’s high-stakes deal in a separate FT analysis here.
Related links:
Any decision to invest in Pru or Rights Issue shares… – FT Alphaville
Would Pru/AIA be questionable, even without Tidjane? - FTAlphaville
To: tidjane.thiam@prudential.co.uk – FT Alphaville
Pru has a difficult yarn to sell investors - Lombard