00:00Iran and obviously Middle East is a very big theme that we've been tracking and
00:04we're wondering from your specific perch in your business are you seeing any
00:08specific implications and flow wise or on the business itself well how are you
00:14looking at what's going on so good morning so first of course the situation
00:18is very concerning and distrustful particularly for people in the Middle
00:21East and what we all want to see is quick resolution to to the conflict in
00:26terms of what we're seeing in the markets more generally and you saw it
00:29this morning again although oil prices have gone up actually markets have been
00:33stable or so in many ways I think markets are seeing through the conflict and are
00:38also hoping for for a resolution we as LNG we have very little exposure to the
00:43Middle East so what we're really helping is helping our clients navigate the
00:47uncertainty we've been around for one hundred and ninety years as a company
00:50and so we've seen a lot of a lot of uncertainty and this type of situation
00:54so we are we're not seeing any any different flows from what we normally
00:58see and we're helping our clients navigate and we're keeping a watch
01:02ourselves obviously like everybody else why do you think flows have stayed pretty
01:06consistent amidst all this volatility what do you think is driving that right now so
01:09I think from our perspective we are a really long-term investor so when I think
01:12about how we invest as an insurance company as I say we have this sort of one
01:16hundred and ninety year view so we tend not to react in terms of our own
01:20balance sheet in terms of our clients I think there's a bit of a wait and see sort of to
01:24see how the situation evolves but a lot of our own clients are big insurance
01:28companies big institutional investors so they're taking a similar approach it's
01:32probably a bit different with more retail shareholders but and more retail
01:36investors but particularly from our from our client base we have 1.6 trillion AUM
01:41most of what we do is institutional so I think people are taking that that
01:45longer-term perspective just in terms of the business itself and I think you've
01:50been at the helm just a little over two years correct me if I'm wrong yes have
01:54most things gone to plan what's gone well what hasn't quite gone up to par up
01:58until this point so yes it's been over two years time time flies so what I feel
02:04really good about is that we have set out the strategy for growth that's just
02:07great to be here in Asia region that that's growing I've reshaped my team which
02:12is also great as a sort of as a CEO what's been complex is what we were just
02:17talking about so that the environment is is uncertainty and there's been both in
02:23the UK and globally there is some uncertainty but that's again as I said
02:27what we're here to do to have our clients navigate that uncertainty so I
02:30feel pretty good about this is our moment as LNG we've set up a strategy we
02:34have our team in place and and the business has grown if you take a look at
02:39LNG's stock price I think it's kind of remained the same level since you took the
02:42helm back in 2024 what do you think is the main issue that investors might have on your
02:46strategy and the execution of it so the main issue is this point Yvonne about
02:51growth kind of is the company growing right we're a super stable company but
02:54with a bit of a difficult it's difficult to change such a such a big institution
03:01and and therefore what you see recently in terms of key client wins it's that
03:06coming through so we have three big businesses pension risk transfer we are the
03:10global leader in in institutional retirement so we feel very good about that
03:14business asset management which is primarily the business that we do here
03:17in Asia we've seen an inflection point but that to be honest is the area that
03:21is taking longer to turn around in terms of performance and then we have 13
03:25million customers in the UK as far as retail business it's really the asset
03:29management business where we now need to see more of that traction and I think
03:33this is what investors you know I look at the long term and and it's it's where
03:37investors now need to see that traction coming through any drastic changes
03:41drastic might be an aggressive word but you know investors the curse of being a
03:44public company right stable is not good enough they look for growth what what
03:48changes are you looking to put in place in the asset management so that the
03:51biggest part of asset management the biggest changes have been in asset
03:54management so I've cleaned up a lot of historical issues that we had in terms of
03:58businesses that we sold so we had businesses actually were good businesses
04:01being honest David but businesses that didn't make sense strategically for us so I
04:05sold those that bit is now done you're done with that yeah that bit is done nothing more to
04:10to report there we had two divisions that I merged into one bigger asset
04:14management business the 1.6 trillion that I was talking about and now it's
04:17really so the cleanup is done and now it's really about growing last year you
04:22had a few departures your CFO and your CIO have left the company does that make
04:27it harder for you to execute on your strategy or is it the opposite where you
04:31can actually get things done so on a management level look you set up your
04:35strategy and you define your team and actually both of those departures were
04:39actually planned in many ways and so I feel very good that I know I have my
04:43team around me and that we can now grow we have a period of stability in terms of
04:47management team and so that's why I'm saying this this is our moment you set
04:50your strategy you put your team in place and now it's about growing the business
04:53fresh out of the oven is the manual life deal a few weeks old if I'm not
04:58mistaken two three since the announcement so what initial milestones are
05:02you looking at for in terms of success rate yeah it's a great question so we in
05:06this part of sort of growth a lot of what I've been doing is big strategic
05:09partnerships actually if I step back is two weeks ago I was in Japan we also did
05:13a big strategic partnership with major suda so one of the largest insurance
05:16companies in in Japan and the menu life strategic partnership is similar is and
05:21we have a very complementary strengths so their footprint and our footprint fit
05:26that's really nicely together and so it's about us being able to distribute
05:30products through menu life when I arrived here in Hong Kong last night I could
05:34see their sort of the the big logos and and the presence in Asia is great presence
05:38in Canada is also great a key strategic market for us and conversely they're
05:42looking at reinsuring part of our business we're doing looking at at similarly
05:47doing that with them so insurance and asset management two big businesses for
05:50both for both companies and we're quite complementary so I'm looking at much
05:55more kind of success coming from that partnership we've seen a lot of
05:58consolidation in the asset management space whether you know given the
06:01competition that you see with the passive investments like the investment firms
06:05like Vanguard black rock on the other side you have you know the alternative
06:10investment firms like blackstone and Apollo I mean we just saw when it came to
06:15Nuveen really you know merging with shoulders yeah what does it mean for LNG do you
06:21think are you the next UK firm to be swallowed up look scale is is the name of the
06:27game here we have 1.6 trillion US dollars so I feel very comfortable with with our
06:32size we ourselves we announced a partnership with with Blackstone and so we are
06:37bringing the best of LNG and the best of Blackstone together so there we're using
06:41some of the US private credit and then we're developing hybrid public and private
06:45products so I think it's a question of continue to grow organically because we
06:49have the scale but also partner where we've talked about several of our
06:52partnerships and so I feel I feel good and it's also it's it's flattering in a way
06:56this is a it's a space where a lot of money is coming in to the insurance asset
07:01management space and yeah we like competition can I just ask the final is
07:06that a key growth area for you alternatives just based on that last that last
07:10comment you just made definitely so we have roughly 100 billion dollars of
07:14alternatives so if you think about it actually compared to our size probably
07:18we're underweight from a private perspective but we've been growing a lot and so
07:22that's one of the things I'll be talking about it in the conference today
07:24yeah
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