Pru chief offers to quit over failed AIA bid

Published on Friday 4 June 2010 21:52

PRUDENTIAL boss Tidjane Thiam yesterday apologised for "mistakes" in the abortive $35 billion (£24.3bn) bid for AIG's Asian arm, AIA, and said he would resign if shareholders wanted him to go.

But the architect of the deal said he had felt under no pressure from investors to step down. "I am the servant of the shareholders," the Pru's chief executive said. "If my shareholders want me to go, then of course I would. They have not expressed that desire."

He said that he was "very sorry" that the firm would have to fork out 450 million in break fees and costs of the failed bid.

"We gave it our best and I'm proud of what the team did, but yes there were mistakes," Thiam added. His comments came after Prudential chairman Harvey McGrath said the board was "completely behind" Thaim and other management.

McGrath also risked angering institutional investors in favour of boardroom change by calling them "outliers" – apparently detached from the main body of shareholder opinion.

The bid for AIA foundered after AIG refused to renegotiate the price. McGrath said the management team was "quite devastated" by this refusal, but "not worried at all about our positions".

Thiam has said that it is a "fallacy" to link his failure to land the AIA deal with his ability to run the business. "To say I'm inexperienced in running a $35bn transaction, that's true," he said. "Not many have experience of running a $35bn transaction."