Man from the Pru steps down

Prudential chief executive Mark Tucker is to step down in September after four and a half years. He will be replaced by Tidjane Thiam, the current chief financial officer, who becomes the first black man to head a FTSE 100 company.

The news came after the Pru released it latest results.

Highlights using both the new embedded value accounting method and the traditional international financial reporting standards method:

• EEV Operating Profit of £2,961m up 17%
• New Business Profit of £1,307m up 8%
• Asset management operating profit up 3% to £345m
• EEV Shareholders' funds up 2% to £15bn
• Net asset value per share £5.99 (2007: £5.91)
• Return on Embedded Value of 15% (2007: 15.4%)
• IFRS statutory operating profit of £1,347m up 12%
• IFRS Shareholders' funds of £5.1bn (2007: £6.1bn)
• Net asset value per share £2.03 (2007: £2.45)
• IGD capital surplus estimated at £1.7bn (2007: £1.9bn), £2.5bn on completion of transfer of Taiwan agency business
• Holding Company cash flow positive at £54m
• 2008 full year dividend increased by 5% to 18.90 pence per share

The company said: “In his 25 years at Prudential, Mark Tucker has worked across the business in the UK, US and Asia. He was chief executive of Prudential Corporation Asia and established Prudential as the leading international life company in the region. Mark was appointed group chief executive in May 2005. Over this time the compound annual growth rate in EEV has been 21% and IFRS profits of 14%. Under Mark's leadership, the business has taken maximum advantage of the opportunities for profitable growth arising from its advantaged geographical diversification, and as a result 65% of earnings now come from outside of the UK.

Tidjane Thiam joined Prudential in March 2008 from Aviva. A French national, Thiam began his career with McKinsey, working in both Paris and London, from 1986 to 1994, serving insurance companies and banks. Between 1994 and 1998, Tidjane returned to his birth place, the Ivory Coast, as the chief executive of the National Bureau for Technical Studies and Development, reporting directly to the President and Prime Minister. He was then appointed as Minister of Planning and Development and left the country after the December 1999 military coup. He was elected as a partner of McKinsey in 2000, where he worked until joining Aviva in 2002.

Harvey McGrath, Prudential chairman, said: “Mark has made an outstanding contribution and has led the transformation of Prudential into the strongest, and best focused, company in the sector with a diversified international presence in advantaged regions and markets. He is a world-class leader and we are very grateful to have had his leadership, vision, drive and commitment. We are truly sorry to see him go, but fully respect his decision.

“As a Board, we maintain a continuous focus on succession planning and have one of the strongest management teams in the industry. I am therefore delighted to announce that Tidjane Thiam will succeed Mark on 1st October 2009. Tidjane is ideally equipped to succeed Mark, given his global experience, knowledge of the sector and his outstanding leadership qualities. We are delighted to have such an outstanding and proven successor in Tidjane.”

Tucker said: “Choosing to leave Prudential has been one of the hardest decisions of my life. When I was appointed Group Chief Executive here, I set myself a number of key deliverables - namely establishing a clear and readily understood strategy that would deliver sustainable growth, improving the overall quality of our business through selective disposals, building the best executive team in the industry, driving continually improving performance and ensuring that world class leadership succession was in place. I believe that I have delivered on what I set out to do and that the time is now right to hand over to a successor to continue the work.