There is not a lot that Mike Wells, the newish chief executive of Prudential, can do wrong. The Pru has four main strengths that he inherited.
It has M&G, one of the best-performing fund managers, even if this did suffer some outflows of retail money in the second quarter, a total of £4 billion, as investors moved away from fixed-income products in reaction to the expected rise in British and American interest rates.
It is well positioned in Asia, meeting the requirements of the growing middle class there and with a joint venture in China with Citic, the Chinese conglomerate. Though the gyrations of the Chinese stock market will be a negative, the lack of provision of old age pensions will force consumers towards