To safeguard the group against the crisis of confidence spread across the markets due to the ongoing financial crisis
The UK-based insurer, Prudential is seeing Asia as a source of capital and may even want to raise equity in the region, after the success of a $750 million hybrid capital raising in this year – reported The Financial Times.
Reportedly, Tidjane Thiam, who takes over as CEO of Prudential on October 1, said that the company would like to diversify its shareholder base away from the UK to better reflect the sources and diversity in its business.
He said: “It’s a great opportunity for us because there is so much wealth being created there and therefore it is also a source of capital for the world. In the future, things change and we could revisit that but today it’s a core part of our strategy, it’s very important to the group and frankly it allows us to be successful.”
However, he added that “the UK and, particularly, the with-profits business was a central part of the strategy today, although in the future, things change and we could revisit that,” reported the newspaper.