Roundup: Prudential announces big growth of profit, CEO to step down

Prudential Plc, Britain's biggest insurer by market value, Tuesday announced that it has registered a 60 percent increase of pre-tax profit to 2.61 billion pounds (3.93 billion U.S. dollars) in the year of 2014, as it benefited from market growth in Asia and the United States and investment returns.

The insurer also announced that Tidjane Thiam, the Chief Executive of Prudential, will step down this year from his role as CEO and from the Board. Thiam has agreed to join Credit Suisse as CEO.

KEY METRICS GROWTH

Prudential's long-term business profits in Asian, the U.S. and United Kingdom markets reached 1.05 billion pounds, 1.43 billion pounds and 752 million pounds, respectively, in 2014. In 2013, the insurer's long-term business profits in the three markets hit 1 billion, 1.24 billion and 706 million pounds, respectively.

The company also saw long-term investment returns of 3.19 billion pounds last year, up from the previous year's 2.95 billion pounds. M&G, Prudential's assets management arm, reported a 488 million pounds of profit.

"We continued to grow across our key metrics despite the challenges presented by historically low long-term interest rates in the U.S. and the U.K., major currency discontinuities in some of our key Asian markets and unprecedented regulatory changes in the UK life market," Thiam said in a statement.

"Looking ahead, the economic environment in the U.S. and the U.K. appears to show signs of improvement," he added.

"Furthermore, we are optimistic about the outlook for the emerging economies of Asia, where the long-term fundamentals of our life insurance business remain compelling. We continue to see strong economic growth and increasing demand for insurance from a rapidly growing and prosperous middle class which is under-insured," he said.

The group will distribute diluted earnings per share (EPS) of 0.868 pounds to its shareholders.

ASIAN CONTRIBUTION

Tidjane Thiam, a French Ivorian businessman born in Côte d'Ivoire, was appointed the CEO of Prudential in 2009. He was the first black person to lead a FTSE 100 company, or a British blue chip firm.

Paul Manduca, Chairman of Prudential, said in a statement that Tidjane has been "one of the most exceptional leaders" in Prudential's history.

"From leading the group through the financial crisis at the end of the last decade, first as CFO and then as CEO, to shaping an Asia-focused strategy that has seen Prudential grow into an ever more successful UK-based financial services business, he has been a great servant to the company and all its stakeholders in his seven years on our Board," he said.

Thiam highlighted the group's Asian business growth under his realm in the statement.

"Prudential in Asia has more than doubled in size and profitability since 2009 and is a clear leader in insurance in the world's most populous and dynamic region," he said.

"We have successfully navigated some challenging times, including the global financial crisis, and have emerged with four profitable and strongly cash-generative businesses," he added.

Thiam will replace Brady Dougan at the Swiss bank and wealth manager at the end of June 2015. The news cheers the stock performance of Credit Suisse, which opened around 8 percent higher to 25 Swiss Franc (25.03 U.S. dollars) Tuesday.

Credit Suisse's share price has fallen 55 percent over the past five years, as the group is under pressure of greater scrutiny of its business model. During the same period, however, the price of Prudential share traded on the London Stock Exchange has risen some 220 percent, data showed. (1 pound=1.51 U.S. dollars) Enditem