Nobody will resign over failed AIA bid: Prudential

Nobody will have to resign from British insurer Prudential Plc's top team over the collapse of its $35.5-billion bid for AIA as it has the support of the board and a majority of the shareholders, a media report said.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Prudential chairman Harvey McGrath described the shareholders calling for a top-level change as 'outliers' and said that neither he nor chief executive Tidjane Thiam were worried about their positions.

"The board is completely behind the management team. No one has offered to resign, and no one has been asked to resign," Prudential chairman Harvey McGrath said.

He further said, "There are a couple of shareholders calling for change, but they are outliers. The vast majority of our biggest investors are saying that they don't want to see a change at the top. They are supportive of the management and of Tidjane."

There had been calls for resignations and service terminations at Prudential after the failed attempt to take over AIA, the Asian businesses of AIG.

Speaking to FT, Thiam said, "It is a clever thing to try and connect my inability to seal a $35-billion deal with my broad ability to run a company, but it is a fallacy.

"To say I'm inexperienced in running a $35-billion transaction, that's true. Not many have the experience of running a $35-billion transaction," Thiam added.

On Wednesday, Prudential scrapped its $35.5-billion takeover bid for the AIA Group, after failing to renegotiate a lower price for the deal. Prudential had initially announced a $35.5-billion deal to buy out the AIA Group.

However, in the wake of many shareholders objecting to the transaction value, the UK insurer revised the terms -- valuing the deal at $30.38 billion.