Prudential: stick with the plan

And that's the way it is. This is Tidjane Thiam, signing off. The outgoing chief executive of UK insurer Prudential may not have the following of Walter Cronkite, the former CBS news anchor, but Mr Thiam's act should at least prove easy to follow for Mike Wells, his successor, who takes over next month. Mr Thiam leaves a well-oiled machine, with an Asian growth business in rude health and, despite low interest rates, resilient units in the US and UK.

Investors (and, no doubt, the board) will hope that Mr Wells delivers more of the same, only better. Although shareholders put paid to Mr Thiam's 2010 attempt to buy AIA, the Asian arm of US insurer AIG, first-quarter results on Wednesday show that they have benefited from his subsequent go-it-alone bet on tapping secular growth among Asia's emerging middle classes. The region accounted for 54 per cent of Prudential's £1.25bn sales - from 44 per cent of a smaller figure five years ago - and the bulk of the group's profits on its new business, at a higher margin than it achieves in its developed markets.

So Mr Wells, who earned his spurs as CEO of Prudential's Jackson National Life operation in the US, has no reason to alter an Asian growth strategy set in 2013. He was its co-author. In US life, however, where Prudential targets retiring baby boomers, he will want to ensure that Jackson remains selective in the variable annuity business it writes - it must not chase volumes. Better to let quarterly sales fluctuate. He should also keep exploiting the fee-generating potential of Jackson's asset-management business.

In the UK, Prudential has increased sales of supplemental products, such as "with-profits" funds, to offset the wider market fall in annuity sales after last year's pension reforms. That strategy looks to have paid off: UK retail life sales rose by 8 per cent from a year ago.

In fact, Mr Thiam himself has paid off. Under his tutelage, Prudential's share price has risen by 180 per cent. More of the same indeed, Mr Wells.

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