Aegon chief Thoresen 'set to step down'

He is likely to be replaced by chief operating officer Adrian Grace who has taken responsibility for overseeing a major overhaul of the business.

The company, which acquired Scottish Equitable in 1994, said it would not comment on what it called "market speculation" but an announcement is said to be imminent, according to sources in the Edinburgh financial community.

Thoresen has led Aegon UK since succeeding David Henderson in 2005 but there have been murmurings within the industry about him leaving earlier than his planned retirement date ever since the company announced its plans last summer to cut costs and refocus the business. He has taken the company from a top ten to a top three provider of life and pension products and chaired a year-long review on behalf of the Treasury, looking at how a national money advice service could operate.

Thoresen, a Scot born to a Norwegian father, is in his second spell at Aegon UK, having first joined Scottish Equitable in 1978.

Aegon has constantly faced a branding issue which Thoresen tried to tackle through a number of high-profile marketing campaigns.

These included a 25 million sponsorship deal with British tennis and being title sponsor of the former Stella Artois tournament.

However, Steve Clode, the man he hired to develop the programme, was one of two high-profile casualties of the restructuring programme introduced last summer to improve performance and cut 80m from annual running costs. Some 600 Edinburgh-based jobs are being axed in the process.

Grace is a former HBOS executive who joined Aegon two years ago in the newly created role of group development director.

He was promoted to his current role in the shake-up that saw the departure of Clode, marketing director, and Feilim Mackle, director of life and pensions.

He has made progress with the restructuring programme and last week the company announced that 33m of the target had been achieved by the end of last year.