Prudential plc, an international financial services group with significant operations in Asia, the US and the UK, serving more than 23 million insurance customers and with £427 billion of assets under management, is eying the Nigerian life market for big ticket risks.
The company, which was in Nigeria last week to make enquiries from the National Insurance Commission, said they were in the Commission to apprise the Commissioner of the intention of Prudential to invest in the Nigerian insurance market and to inquire about the modalities for entry.
Led by Peter Cart, deputy British High Commissioner, the company’s director of strategy and corporate development, Matt Lilley informed that his company was a purely life insurance entity and had been in operation for 165 years.
“The company has its major investments in Asia at the moment and have recently injected $5 million into a small insurance business in Ghana,” according to Lilley, saying Prudential was keen and eager to enter the Nigerian market for big ticket businesses.
Nigerian insurance commissioner, Fola Daniel, who received the team, expressed his delight at the visit and the desires of Prudential to invest in the Nigerian insurance industry, promising the support and cooperation of the Commission towards the successful entrance of the company into the Nigerian market.
On Prudential’s performance in third quarter of 2013, Tidjane Thiam, group chief executive, said: “As we get closer to the end of 2013, the Group has continued to make good progress in the third quarter. In Asia, our life business increased new business profit by 20 percent in the first nine months. Our growth in Asia is supported by a number of key long-term fundamentals: a fast-growing and increasingly wealthy middle class, a positive demography, i.e, a young population, rising urbanisation, high savings rates, strong demand for accumulation and protection products and low insurance penetration.
“Our third-quarter performance illustrates that these positive long-term fundamentals are not affected by short-term financial market fluctuations. The scale and quality of our distribution and our product suite put us in a strong position to capture the savings and protection opportunity in our target Asian markets.
“In the US, we continue to successfully execute our diversification strategy, with nearly a third of our variable annuity sales now accounted for by variable annuities without living benefit guarantees, led by increased sales of our Elite Access product. In the UK, our life business continues to focus on driving value over volume, while M&G has built on the momentum of the first half of the year, generating net inflows of £5.1 billion in the third quarter and increasing external funds under management to £124 billion, 19 percent higher year on year.
“We remain on track to achieve our 2013 ‘Growth and Cash’ objectives. In Asia, our focus on meeting the long-term savings and protection needs of a rapidly growing and increasingly wealthy middle class remains a key driver of resilient and sustainable profit growth. Our US and UK businesses remain focused on delivering earnings and cash.”
By: Modestus Anaesoronye
