Gianluca Vialli, Glenn Hoddle, Ruud Gullit - these are the names UK sport fans associate with the player-manager. Less so Mike Wells, the new chief executive of insurer Prudential (PRU). But Mr Wells describes a similar transition from being "one of the players" underneath former boss Tidjane Thiam to being the "coach".
He has certainly inherited a strong team, as demonstrated in the first half. The four key stats that the insurer judges itself by are operating profit, new business profit, underlying surplus generation, and cash remittances to the group from its business units. Each increased by double digits over the period.
Again, the team's overseas players were its strongest - Asia provided a 17 per cent increase in operating profit to £632m. This was driven by the continued growth in asset management and increasing sales to mainland China. Management is keen to stress that its regular health and life insurance premium business there is protected from market turmoil.
In the US, Mr Wells' old stomping ground, increasing fee income from an ageing demographic helped operating profit rise 13 per cent to £846m. In the UK, higher turnover in individual pensions, drawdown and Isas offset falls in individual annuities. But asset manager M&G's £3.4bn net retail outflows were a weak point in the team's defence, as retail investors dumped bonds.
Analysts at Shore Capital expect EPS of 105p for the full year, up from 97p in 2014.
| PRUDENTIAL (PRU) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 1,500p | MARKET VALUE: | £38.6bn | |
| TOUCH: | 1,500-1,500.5p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 1,762p | LOW: 1,288p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 2.5% | PE RATIO: | 15 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 471p | EMBEDDED VALUE: | 1,170p | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Gross life premiums (£bn) | Pre-tax profit (£bn) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 16.2 | 1.71 | 45.0 | 11.19 |
| 2015 | 17.9 | 2.08 | 56.3 | 12.31 |
| % change | +10 | +22 | +25 | +10 |
Ex-div: 20 Aug Payment: 24 Sep | ||||
