A US hedge fund has taken a $2bn (£1.6bn) stake in Prudential and now wants to close its UK head office.
Third Point, a hedge fund run by shareholder activist Daniel Loeb, says scrapping the insurer’s head office can save £200m a year.
In a letter to Prudential, Mr Loeb has called for it to separate its US and Asian businesses. If Prudential was to close its head office it would end its 172-year presence in the UK.
The $14bn hedge fund gave a list of demands to Prudential’s directors on Monday. In his letter, Mr Loeb argued that there was no strategic logic to the company’s current structure.
This includes separate units in the US and Asia which are run from a London head office.
Prudential is the largest insurance company listed on the London stock market, with a value of £37bn. Third Point has taken a stake of just under 5% in the insurer, and is now its second-largest shareholder.
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