L&G to kick off hunt for successor to Kingman

Authorized & Common (L&G), the FTSE-100 insurance coverage and asset administration group, is getting ready to kick off a seek for a successor to chairman Sir John Kingman.

Sky Information has learnt that the corporate, which this week introduced a significant company deal within the US, is near appointing headhunters to supervise the appointment course of.

Metropolis sources mentioned this weekend that Sir John was prone to step down from the L&G board and retire as chairman at its annual assembly subsequent yr.

That timetable will give the corporate, which is able to mark its bicentenary in simply over a decade, about 15 months to establish and appoint its subsequent chair.

Sir John has turn into one of many Metropolis’s most distinguished figures during the last decade, having been a shock appointment in 2016 to interchange interim chair Rudy Markham.

Since then, he has turn into chairman of Barclays’ UK ring-fenced financial institution subsidiary, which changed an earlier position he held as chairman of Tesco Financial institution.

He additionally presided over a landmark evaluate of audit regulation within the UK within the aftermath of accounting scandals at corporations similar to BHS and Carillion.

Previous to his profession in enterprise, Sir John was a long-serving Whitehall mandarin, taking part in a number one position to Britain’s response to the 2008 monetary disaster.

Following the bailouts of Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Financial institution of Scotland – now NatWest Group – he was named the primary chief govt of UK Monetary Investments, the company set as much as handle the taxpayer’s financial institution stakes.

Whereas in that position, he oversaw the efficient defenestration of Sir Victor Clean as Lloyds’ chair – a transfer which surprised the Metropolis.

Following that, he moved to Rothschild as an funding banker.

For many of Sir John’s tenure as L&G chair, the corporate was run by Sir Nigel Wilson, who oversaw an enormous push by the corporate into financing city regeneration initiatives throughout the UK, and increasing its pension threat switch enterprise.

Sir Nigel’s successor, the previous HSBC and Santander govt Antonio Simoes, has introduced quite a few efforts to slim down the group’s operations.

He bought Cala Properties final yr for £1.4bn, and on Friday introduced the sale of L&G’s US insurance coverage enterprise to its accomplice, Japan’s Meiji Yasuda, for $2.3bn.

As a part of the deal, Meiji Yasuda may even purchase a 5% stake within the FTSE-100 group.

L&G mentioned it could develop its share buyback programme by £1bn as soon as the deal closes.

L&G mentioned in December when it introduced a collection of board modifications that Henrietta Baldock, who was named senior impartial director-designate, would “lead the Board succession course of for the Chair”.

It has not made a public announcement concerning the timing of the recruitment course of to interchange Sir John.

On Friday, shares in L&G closed about 1.2% larger at 241.7p, giving the corporate a market capitalisation of £14.24bn.

An L&G spokesperson declined to remark additional.