Last year the UK's Prudential paid £503m in dividends; this year it will pay almost as much in fees for a deal that didn't happen. Yesterday's disclosure of a £450m bill for the cack-handed attempt to buy AIA surely threatens the positions of Tidjane Thiam, chief executive, and also chairman Harvey McGrath. For the same money M&G, Pru's funds arm, could have bought Gartmore or F&C Asset Management, or for that matter, any company below the FTSE 350. Hell, the group could have taken a 2 per cent stake in AIA in the now-likely IPO.
去年，英国保诚集团(Prudential)派息5.03亿英镑；而今年，它将为一宗半途而废的交易支付几乎同等的费用。保诚为收购友邦保险(AIA)的愚笨企图需开出4.5亿英镑账单——昨日曝光的这一消息，无疑会威胁到集团首席执行官迪德简•蒂亚姆(Tidjane Thiam)和董事长韩伟民(Harvey McGrath)的地位。用这笔钱，保诚旗下的基金公司M&G可以买下英国资产管理公司Gartmore或F&C资产管理公司(F&C Asset Management)，甚至是任何一家富时350指数成本股公司。真见鬼，保诚本可以用这笔钱在目前看来很有可能的AIA首次公开发行(IPO)中获得2%的股份。