In his first interview since replacing Peter Towers in the top job at the Dublin-based life insurer, Michael Leahy, whose title is international wealth director, unveiled his plans for taking the business forward.
European growth
He said growing the European business was one of the key priorities, which would be achieved by gaining licences for products, chiefly with-profits-based, in new EU markets aimed at expat and local investors.
Prudential International is licensed to sell products in eight European jurisdictions; UK, Belgium, Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, Malta, Gibraltar and Cyprus.
“We have strong distribution with the major banks in the UK and a number of these are very active in the expat markets and so these would be interesting markets for us to go into – but it is very much about having compliant products in each country.”
He added Spain, France and the Netherlands were likely to be targeted.
Asian focus
Prudential’s calamitous attempt to buy AIG’s Asian business, AIA, aside, Leahy said Asia would be a new area of focus for the Dublin-domiciled business.
“The other big opportunity that I would like to explore is the potential to work with my colleagues in Prudential Corporation Asia to develop wealth products for the Asian markets.
“We’ve got a very big business in Asia, which is pretty retail in its nature. As these countries are getting more affluent there are opportunities to sell more sophisticated products. We have the skill set for creating and developing these sophisticated wealth products for new markets such as in Asia so it is another area for us to look at.”
Leahy, who helped launch Standard Life International and also held the post of chief executive of Standard Life Ireland, said there were numerous challenges for international insurers to overcome in terms of regulation, creating the right products for changing demographics and operating at a time when countries were looking to increase tax revenues.
