(Bloomberg) — Prudential Plc, the largest U.K. insurer by market value, halted trading in Hong Kong and Singapore before an announcement that Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam is leaving for the same job at Credit Suisse Group AG.
Thiam, who has led the insurer as CEO since 2009, told the board of his plan to step down this year, the company said on Tuesday. His successor has been identified after considering both internal and external candidates and is expected to be announced once the regulatory approval process has been completed, Paul Manduca, Prudential’s chairman, said in an e- mailed statement.
Prudential’s shares traded at record highs in Hong Kong and Singapore before the suspension. Thiam has led efforts to double the size and profitability of its Asian operations since 2009, Manduca said in the statement.
The appointment puts Thiam, an Ivory Coast-born French national who has spent the past decade running insurance businesses, atop Switzerland’s second-biggest lender. Prudential is poised to appoint Mike Wells, the head of its U.S. Jackson National Life Insurance Co. unit, to succeed Thiam, Sky News reported.
Wells joined Jackson National in 1995 and helped the company develop its first variable and fixed-annuity products. He was promoted to Jackson National’s chief operating officer and, in 2010, named CEO of the unit.
Jackson National led all life insurers in the first nine months of 2014 with more than $19.5 billion in individual annuity sales, according to trade group Limra.
In 2013, Wells’s pay eclipsed that of Thiam. Wells holds a bachelor’s degree from San Diego State University, according to Jackson National’s website.
Thiam joined Prudential in 2008 and has led the insurance company as CEO since 2009. He succeeded Mark Tucker who was later tapped to lead rival AIA Group Ltd., based in Hong Kong. Thiam has led a successful bet on Asia to drive profit growth and also started to expand in Africa.
Operating profit of Prudential’s Asia life and asset management businesses jumped 17 percent last year on a constant exchange rate basis, the company announced in a separate statement on Tuesday. Jackson’s operating profit surged 21 percent. Both were ahead of the 14 percent operating profit growth of the entire company.
Prudential, based in London, listed in both Hong Kong and Singapore in May 2010 to give regional investors more opportunities to buy its shares amid an attempt to buy AIA for $35.5 billion.
Thiam was publicly censured in 2013 after the insurer was fined 30 million pounds ($45 million) for not telling the U.K. regulator soon enough about its plan to buy AIA. The proposed deal collapsed after investors questioned the price Prudential agreed to pay.
