14
LIFE NEWS
Noon: natural choice
Royal London 360°
picks Noon to head
Malaysia business
Royal London 360° has
appointed Steve Noon as
regional sales consultant
for Malaysia to help build
and maintain relationships
with IFAs in the region.
Based in the Hong Kong
and Far East regional office,
he will be responsible for
promoting the firm’s range
of offshore investment,
savings and tax planning
products.
Noon was previously at
Standard Bank Offshore,
where he was manager of
business development,
Asia, with responsibility for
maintaining relationships
with IFAs, marketing, new
product development, and
developing and opening a
new Chinese expatriate
banking market.
“This is an important
market for the company,
and with Steve’s previous
experience of working in
Asia, he is a natural choice
to build relationships and
develop our proposition in
the Far East,” said David
Gervais, general manager
of Royal London 360° in the
Far East. “I am delighted to
be able to work with him.”
Zurich names Hartigan as
Sabugueiro’s replacement
BY DANIEL JUDGE
Zurich International Life
(Zil) has announced the
replacement for Carlos
Sabugueiro, its former
Middle East chief executive,
who unexpectedly left
the firm in December.
Mark Hartigan, global
head of international and
expatriate clients for
Zurich’s Global Life division,
will take on the
Middle East CEO role.
He will also retain his
previous position.
Sabugueiro had been in
the post just over a year.
Previously he had been
Zil’s regional director for
Asia, based in Hong Kong,
and had been with the
Zurich group for almost 15
years in a variety of roles.
It is believed he will be
joining another, as yet
undisclosed, life company
in the Middle East.
Hartigan, who has only
been with Zurich since last
July, will report to David
Sims, chief executive of the
Global Life division.
Hartigan joined Zurich
from Middle East financial
advisory firm Nexus, where
he held the position of
deputy chief executive.
Nexus has strong links
to Zurich, having been
the tied agency force in
the region for the life company
until a management
buyout in 2007.
Sims said: “This is an
exciting new chapter for
our business.
“Mark has first-hand
experience of meeting the
needs of this distinct customer
segment, plus handson
experience of what it is
like to be a customer of
Zurich.
“Together with this,
Mark brings a deep understanding
of the Middle
East distribution market
place; and with his passion,
he will help to drive
the growth of our Middle
East business.”
Pru stops writing new business in Japan
UK insurance group
Prudential said it will discontinue
writing new business
in Japan, effective
next month, citing the
“local business environment
in Japan and other
factors over the past year”.
The announcement
comes as the company’s
other Asian operations are
expanding rapidly, and
have accounted for a growing
percentage of its total
profits.
In a statement, Prudential
said PCA Life Insurance, as
the eight-year-old Japanese
Hartigan: deep understanding
subsidiary is known,
“remains committed to
serving existing customers”,
of whom it said it had
more than 170,000 at the
end of September, with
assets of ¥178bn (€1.37bn,
$1.96bn). It added that the
operation enjoyed a superior
solvency margin ratio
of 1,262.3%.
A Prudential spokeswoman
said Japan contributed
3% of the parent company’s
total new business
Annual Premium Equivalent.
Prudential’s Japanese asset
management business, PCA
Asset Management, is unaffected
by the suspension
of new business sales. It is
among the largest foreign
asset managers operating
in the Japanese market.
“This decision will not
impact the quality of service
and support current,
existing PCA Life customers
will receive from the
company,” Prudential said.
“PCA Life remains committed
to meeting all existing
policyholder obligations
and to maintaining
first-rate levels of service to
existing customers.”
Cowdery: Resolution boss
Friends Provident
to buy its German
distribution firm
Friends Provident is to buy
Financial Partners Business,
its German distribution
partner. Resolution, the UK
financial group’s new
parent company, did not
disclose the price.
Friends Provident has
worked exclusively with
FpB, which has assets of
€9.7m, since 2007 to distribute
its products to brokers
and financial advisers
in Germany.
In a statement, Resolution
said Friends Provident
had been in talks to acquire
FpB in the course of 2009,
and the Friends Provident
Group board had agreed
the terms of the deal ahead
of Resolution’s acquisition
of Friends Provident earlier
this year. The purchase will
help to secure Friends Provident’s
distribution arrangements
in the German
market, Resolution said.
Resolution, Clive
Cowdery’s Guernseybased,
FTSE 100-listed
acquisition vehicle, reached
agreement to buy Friends
Provident in August, two
years after attempting to
merge it with an earlier
incarnation of Resolution.
INTERNATIONAL ADVISER [www.international-adviser.com] FEBRUARY 2010
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