Dear Old Mutual — welcome home
There's probably no precedent for the break-up of such a large financial services group, diversified across so many borders and businesses
A couple of weeks after Bruce Hemphill took over as CEO of London-listed Old Mutual in November 2015, the group held its annual off-site meeting, where management presented its three-year plans for Old Mutual's businesses. When Hemphill aggregated the assumptions, he says, it didn't make sense. The group was a collection of businesses with no real synergies. And it was carrying more than £200-million a year of debt and other costs at the London head office to support four healthy businesses that could look after themselves. "I went back to my room and I thought, what do I say?" he said in an interview this week, following the recent release of Old Mutual's year-end results. To his surprise, when he went back to the team, everyone said he was right: the group had to find some way of giving its parts back to shareholders. The Old Mutual board had given Hemphill six months to think about a new strategy and find a better way to organise the group. But when he met his executive committee...
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