Directors' report: Overview

Opportunity

As we look ahead, we see enormous opportunities in all three of our regions, and we feel confident we have the skills and resources to take advantage of them

United States

78 million baby boomers reaching retirement

In the US, the first members of the 78 million baby boomer generation turned 60 (the average retirement age) in 2006. The ageing demographics of the US are expected to increase annual retirement distributions from $0.5 trillion in 2004 to more than $1 trillion per year by 2012.

Asia

Well placed to leverage proven platform for long-term profitable growth

Prudential Corporation Asia has a productive, scale agency force, strong partnerships, innovative products and a respected brand. Going forward, Prudential will also be exploring new initiatives in the retirement space, developing more direct distribution, launching new health products and implementing a disciplined and systematic cross-sell and up-sell programme with its over seven million existing customers.

United Kingdom

Significant opportunities in retirement savings and income

Prudential is strongly positioned to benefit from the predicted growth in the UK retirement savings and income markets, driven by increasing longevity and the number of baby boomers heading towards retirement over the next few years. Prudential will also be looking to maximise value from the steadily increasing flow of vestings from its mature pensions book over the coming years.

M&G

A fast-growing industry and increasingly accessible markets

The asset management sector continues to benefit from the increasing shift by retail investors from opaque to transparent investment products, such as unit trusts, and M&G’s range of market-leading funds has positioned it very strongly to benefit from this trend. European cross-border distribution has accelerated and the trend in favour of 'Open Architecture' in both the UK and Europe has continued to open up significant bank and life company distribution opportunities.