Prudential plc (Prudential) serves life and health insurance and asset management solutions in Asia and Africa.
The company serves over 18 million customers across 24 markets.
Strategic Pillars
The company’s strategic pillars are enhancing customer experiences, technology-powered distribution, and transforming the health business model.
Multi-market Growth Engines
The company has extensive access to some of the world's fastest growing markets. The company’s strategic plan leverages this uni...
Prudential plc (Prudential) serves life and health insurance and asset management solutions in Asia and Africa.
The company serves over 18 million customers across 24 markets.
Strategic Pillars
The company’s strategic pillars are enhancing customer experiences, technology-powered distribution, and transforming the health business model.
Multi-market Growth Engines
The company has extensive access to some of the world's fastest growing markets. The company’s strategic plan leverages this unique advantage to deliver growth across the company’s target markets.
The company’s customer-centric strategy sets out how it will deliver on its purpose and capture the opportunities presented by these long-term trends over the five years from 2022 to 2027. The company is committed to evolving from being organized around products and channels to being the most trusted partner to its customers throughout their life journeys. The company is building a sustainable growth platform through targeted investment in structural growth markets across Asia and Africa.
Greater China
Mainland China presents significant growth opportunities for the company, as it has a circa 1.4 billion population, low life insurance penetration rates, and an estimated health and protection gap. In Hong Kong, the company has a strong and reputable brand that serves around 1.4 million customers. Meanwhile, Taiwan is the fifth-largest life insurance market in Asia Pacific, with a population of 24 million.
In Mainland China, the company has access to regions that contribute over 80 per cent of GDP and holds licenses to operate in 102 cities through its partner, CITIC. The company’s strategic planning focuses on expanding its agency channel and increasing its productivity to complement the multiple bancassurance partnerships it has in place.
In Hong Kong, the company is present in all 11 cities in the Greater Bay Area, an area that has an extended population of over 86 million people. The company has a strong professional agency force, a high-quality bancassurance partnership, combined with a sustainable Mainland China business.
In Taiwan, the company is the number one foreign player, having developed a sustainable bancassurance channel that generates attractive margins.
India
India represents a compelling opportunity for the company. It has a large population of over 1.4 billion, with a life insurance penetration rate of 3 per cent and a health protection gap.
The company continues to work closely with its partner, ICICI Bank, in both the life insurance and asset management business segments.
Africa
The company’s eight markets in Africa have a combined population of over 450 million, have underserved insurance needs, with life insurance penetration of less than 2 per cent, and offer high-growth potential.
Africa may make a relatively small contribution to the company’s overall new business profit today, but high growth rates across the continent present a longer-term opportunity.
The company’s focus in Africa is on the highest value markets where it has the strongest competitive advantage, through its multi-channel distribution platform.
ASEAN
The ASEAN markets have a combined population of more than 650 million people, with low life insurance penetration rates, served by the company’s businesses in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos.
These are a diverse range of markets that can counterbalance each other, ensuring the company is not over-dependent on one single geography.
The company has one of the leading multi-channel distribution franchises in the region; its agency force includes more than 40,000 monthly active agents, or 60 per cent of the company’s monthly active agents, while its established bank partners include Standard Chartered and UOB.
The company has a strong brand and reputation across the region, and it holds top three positions in seven out of its nine markets in the region, including Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and in the fast-developing markets of the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. The company’s strategy in these markets will seek to leverage its leading platform across the region.
In Thailand, the company continues to grow through its bancassurance business.
Customers
At Prudential, the company is focused on being its customers' most trusted partner throughout their life journeys.
The company’s customer retention rate stands at 87 per cent, putting it in a strong position to grow its share of wallet with existing customers over their lifetime. The rollout of key priorities, such as personalized targeting, segmentation by life stage, differentiated propositions, and simple tech-enabled journeys, underpin its customer-centric strategy.
Markets
The company is one of the few pure-play Asian/African focused groups in its sector. It has one of the largest agency forces in Asia, and it is the number one independent insurer in Asia bancassurance. The breadth of its access to the world's fastest-growing markets across Asia and Africa is, therefore, a key differentiator for the company.
Products
Prudential's comprehensive product suite meets a broad range of needs across every life stage of its customers, helping them achieve their health and wealth goals. The company is actively focused on developing relevant propositions to serve the unique needs of each segment across the range of life stages.
The company has had a substantial health and protection business in several markets for many years. There are opportunities to grow the company’s footprint, particularly in health, across other markets.
Distribution
Prudential has a multi-channel distribution platform of scale. The company has scale in both agency and bancassurance channels, with around 65,000 average monthly active agents across 2024 and more than 200 bank partners, 11 of which are strategic.
Segment
Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, Prudential is a trusted household brand with a successful agency force. The company’s products include comprehensive health and protection solutions, as well as solutions to address customers' wealth accumulation, retirement, and legacy planning needs.
The bulk of the company’s distribution is focused on agency and bancassurance partnerships, and it maintains a niche presence in the broker markets. The company seeks to maintain high-quality new business growth, with strong adherence to prudent sales practices, and is focused on capital and cash-efficient long-term products, especially those with health and protection riders.
In the international market, the company serves the needs of Mainland China customers, which include diversification of currency and asset class, professional financial advice across a broad product spectrum, and access to high-quality medical care available in Hong Kong. The company’s surveys of potential Mainland China customers report consistent demand for Hong Kong's specialized long-term savings, health, and protection products. Including the company’s Macau branch, it is present in all 11 cities in the Greater Bay Area, with a population of over 86 million people.
Indonesia
In Indonesia, the company is among the top three life insurers in both the conventional and Syariah markets. The company’s agency force is the largest by market share. It also has a rapidly growing bancassurance channel that has historically been focused on the upper affluent segment through international bank partners, such as Standard Chartered and UOB.
Prudential Indonesia has been proactive in managing the significant challenges in the health market due to rising medical inflation. Starting in 2023, the company implemented annual repricing actions, which have led to improved claims experience. Additionally, the introduction of a first-in-market claims-based pricing proposition, which offers both flexibility and protection for the company’s clients, demonstrates its commitment to creating more resilient customer-centric solutions.
The company’s dedicated Syariah entity launched a dynamic strategy specifically designed to address the underserved Muslim population. The company is well-positioned to meet the growing demands for Syariah solutions and support the growth of this community and economy. As a testament to the company’s Syariah strategy, Prudential signed a new partnership with BSI, the largest Syariah bank in Indonesia by assets, in September 2024. This new partnership provides access to 20 million customers, for whom the company will develop and deliver new Syariah-compliant solutions. The company is moving quickly to develop working relationships and activation plans as part of this partnership.
Mainland China CITIC Prudential Life
Prudential's life business in Mainland China, CITIC Prudential Life (CPL), is a 50/50 joint venture with CITIC, a leading Chinese state-owned conglomerate. It benefits from the strong brands of both shareholders, with a multi-distribution platform offering a diverse set of products to meet customers' needs.
In Mainland China, CPL is focused on the affluent and advanced affluent segments of the market, where individuals typically have more resilient personal income levels, which are still significantly underpenetrated. CPL has a high-quality agency force, as well as an extensive network of 62 bancassurance partners, with access to over 5,200 branches across Mainland China. The broad reach of its banking partners and the focus of its agency business capabilities in the affluent and advanced affluent segments means that CPL is able to access the portion of the population that is likely to generate quality new business growth as consumer sentiment recovers. The company expects that this growth will be largely in the form of health and protection, long-term policyholder participating savings products, and pensions.
In 2024, the company’s business in Mainland China has adapted its business model and operations to a number of new regulatory requirements, including transitioning to new capital rules, as well as to the downward trends in interest rates. The company has continued to target agent recruitment, as well as improving penetration of its bank partners' customer bases.
Malaysia
The company is a leading life insurer in the conventional market and the largest Takaful operator, making Prudential one of the largest life insurance providers in the country. In 2024, the company increased its market share and outgrew the industry, based on relevant Malaysia market metrics, despite a challenging environment by developing new solutions to meet its customers' health and savings needs, while taking proactive actions to manage its medical book amid high medical inflation.
In Malaysia, the company’s diversified distribution network includes its premier agency force and its bank partnerships with Standard Chartered Bank, UOB, and Bank Simpanan Nasional.
In July, the company launched its pioneering claims-based pricing proposition, aimed at managing the rising medical inflation while improving health outcomes for its customers. The company also launched a first-in-market gender-specific critical illness proposition to address the different protection needs of its customers.
The health market in Malaysia has continued to face rising medical costs, driven by escalating medical treatment costs and increased incidences of hospitalization. The company is leading the market in responding to this environment. The company was the first to introduce a rigorous and consistent repricing program while seeking to mitigate the impact on customers by addressing the underlying causes of the increase in expense. For example, the company has partnered with Google Cloud on the pilot launch of MedLM, a generative AI fine-tuned for the healthcare industry, to improve the accuracy and efficiency of managing medical insurance claims. These actions seek to protect customer value and the value of its medical portfolio amid high medical inflation.
The company’s health strategy has positioned it to respond swiftly to the recent announcement by Bank Negara Malaysia on the new medical repricing guidelines to cap premium increases. The company’s capabilities provide resiliency and a competitive advantage for it as it addresses this challenging environment.
In July 2024, the Federal Court of Malaysia overturned the previous rulings of the High Court and the Court of Appeal in Prudential's favor in an ongoing series of litigation with a minority partner. The company has continued to consolidate its Malaysian conventional life subsidiary, and the decision has no impact on the business at an operational level. The metrics in the segment reflect the fully consolidated results (i.e., before non-controlling interest impacts) of the conventional life business subsidiary (Prudential Assurance Malaysia Berhad or PAMB) and 49 per cent of the Takaful joint venture.
Singapore
In Singapore, the company is one of the market leaders in health and protection, savings, and investment-linked plans. Through the company’s two strategic partners, UOB and Standard Chartered Bank, it gains access to the retail, commercial banking, and high-net-worth customer base of two established banks in Singapore.
The company remains focused on its customers and seeks to address their needs across the different stages in their lives. In the affluent segment, the company offers comprehensive health and retirement solutions. The company is one of the key players in the integrated Shield market (private health insurance coverage that integrates with the national MediShield Life scheme) and continues to explore innovative partnerships with healthcare and technology providers to enhance its offerings. For the younger generation, the company continually improves its investment-linked propositions and expands options for ESG-themed investments for customers.
In Prudential Financial Adviser (PFA), the company’s advisory force grew over 90 per cent to 1,020 members at the end of 2024. PFA offers holistic financial advisory services, including general insurance and wealth solutions, in addition to Prudential's core solutions in whole and term life, health and protection, savings, retirement, and employee benefits.
Growth Markets and Other
The company’s growth markets and other segment incorporates its life businesses in Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar in the ASEAN region, as well as those in India, Taiwan, and Africa.
The profit after tax and adjusted operating profit for the 'Growth markets and other' segment includes the tax charge on the profits/losses for the three life joint ventures and associates in Mainland China, India, and Malaysia (Takaful business), respectively. The overall tax benefit for these entities from large investment losses seen in 2023 has not been repeated, given the more muted short-term market effects in 2024.
Thailand
In Thailand, the company continues to focus on its bancassurance channel, complemented by other distribution channels, including digital, agency, direct marketing, and brokerage. The company’s bancassurance channel continues to perform strongly, delivering APE sales growth of 29 per cent compared with the prior year. This is supported by a successful onboarding of the CIMB bancassurance partnership. The company retained its top three position in bancassurance sales in the market.
This product targets the needs of affluent clients that are seeking to grow their wealth to achieve their life goals and plan for their retirement.
Vietnam
Prudential is one of the leading life insurance companies in Vietnam, which has the third-largest population in ASEAN, and operates with a diversified distribution strategy across multiple channels.
The company continues to focus on quality customer outcomes with industry-leading quality standards, compliant with, or more stringent than, the new Insurance Business Law. While disruption is expected over the short term, the market will regain its growth momentum as customer confidence is restored. There remains significant opportunity to meet the structural demand for savings and protection solutions due to low market penetration and a significant protection gap.
APE sales through the agency channel declined by 26 per cent, reflecting headwinds from weak consumer sentiment. The company has a sizeable professional agency force in Vietnam, with a high level of agents qualifying for MDRT status in 2024. The company continues to invest in its agency force to support its long-term quality growth ambitions and to professionalize it further through training and development.
APE sales declined by 52 per cent in 2024. The company is working closely with its Vietnam bank partners to drive quality sales that address customer needs through training and better processes and continues to see the opportunity to increase penetration rates in its strategic bank partners. The company’s partners include an exclusive partnership with Vietnam International Bank, and it recently added HSBC as a partner with a focus on targeting customers in the urban wealth segment. Sales momentum improved in the second half relative to the first, assisted by its support to bank partners to increase the penetration of target quality segments.
The Philippines
The company has a top three market position in the Philippines, with 15 per cent market share by weighted new business premium, based on the latest available market data. This reflects the core strength of its leading agency force, which is the largest in the market, and its extensive range of propositions to meet its customers' savings and protection needs.
The company saw an agency headcount reduction in the first half of 2024, and it has responded strongly by taking steps to retain and recruit quality new talent and increase agent productivity. These efforts resulted in a 16 per cent increase in APE sales during the second half of 2024 against the prior year, including record sales in the final quarter. Notably, sales quality has remained high, with the individual health and protection mix at 24 per cent of APE sales, and regular premium business accounting for over 95 per cent of business written.
Going forward, the company will continue to strengthen its distribution network through onboarding and nurturing high-quality agents, as well as continuing to promote a seamless customer experience through offering comprehensive solutions.
India
ICICI Prudential Life, of which the company currently holds 22 per cent, is among the top four private life insurance companies in India and is listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in India. ICICI Prudential Life has a well-diversified distribution network enabling the company to reach a wider cross-section of customers to drive growth. ICICI Prudential Life's diverse distribution network comprises more than 200,000 agents, including the addition of 68,000 new agents in 2024, and 46 bank partnerships with access to more than 22,000 bank branches.
Through the '3C' framework—Customer centricity, Competency, and Catalyst—ICICI Prudential Life will continue to deliver sustainable new business profit by balancing business growth, profitability, and risk and prudence.
Taiwan
Taiwan is the fifth-largest life insurance market in Asia, with a population of 24 million. Prudential is a leading insurance company in Taiwan among foreign players and increased APE market share to 8.0 per cent in 2024. The company’s business in Taiwan provides solutions for long-term savings and protection to its target market segments. During the year, the company has continued to broaden the distribution of its participating product suite. High-net-worth individuals remain a key customer segment for Prudential Taiwan, with over 7,200 new customers acquired from this segment in 2024.
The company delivered a strong performance through its local bank partners, supported by key product campaigns and initiatives. The company’s offering of tailored solutions to fulfill specific customer needs across saving, protection, and medical, as well as across different life stages and currencies, has contributed to its growth.
In Africa, Prudential has an established agency force with over 530 agents who qualified for Million Dollar Round Table membership. In addition, Prudential Africa has added four new bank partners in the year, giving it access to nearly 1,600 bank branches in total. The company expanded its Standard Chartered relationship to a further two countries, completing the rollout to its core markets.
The company will continue to focus its investment and capital on large markets in which it sees long-term attractive returns. In line with the company’s strategy, it successfully acquired full ownership of Prudential Zenith Life Insurance Limited Nigeria in 2024.
Eastspring
Eastspring is the Group's asset management company.
The company continued to strengthen and deepen its relationships with third-party clients and with other Prudential Group businesses, providing them with advice through the most dynamic of environments.
The company’s proprietary ESG integration tool, the ESG Visualiser (ESGV), is now available across Eastspring's investment teams. The company has also deepened its climate strategy to seize investment opportunities and address the climate investing gap. This includes the development of an industry best-practice standard, the Eastspring-Prudential 'Framework for Investing in Climate Transition in the Capital Markets', endorsed by the Climate Bonds Initiative.
In India, during 2024, ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company (IPAMC) serviced more than 10 million customers across over 300 locations. It was the second largest asset manager by FUM, with more than 12 per cent market share as of 31 December 2024. Direct business customer numbers grew by over 35 per cent year on year to 4.2 million and constitute 30 per cent of IPAMC's overall customer base as of 31 December 2024.
In China, CITIC-Prudential Fund Management Company Limited (CPFMC) strengthened its distribution capabilities. In addition to 76 new institutional clients, its retail client base exceeded 9.1 million customers, of which 1.38 million were newly acquired. Investment performance was strong in 2024, with 21 products receiving five-star ratings and 17 products ranking among the top 20 per cent in their respective investment categories.
Customer Numbers
A customer is defined as a unique individual or entity who holds one or more policies, that has premiums paid, with a Prudential life insurance entity, including 100 per cent of customers of the Group's joint ventures and associates. The Group business is a single customer for the purpose of this definition.
Regulations
Prudential is subject to the Group-wide Supervision (GWS) Framework issued by the Hong Kong Insurance Authority (IA).
History
Prudential plc was founded in 1848. The company was incorporated in 1978 and registered in England and Wales.
