LONDON, UK--(Marketwire - November 28, 2007) -
For immediate release: 8.30am on 28 November 2007
Prudential UK announces outsourcing partnership to support delivery
of target cost savings
- Prudential UK selects Capita to provide outsourced administration services
- Agreement will deliver GBP60 million per annum of savings to Prudential
UK by the end of 2010. Prudential UK on track to deliver total per-annum
cost savings of GBP195 million by the end of 2010
- Proposal for approximately 1,750 UK employees and 1,250 Mumbai-based
employees to transfer to Capita
- Capita has a proven track record of customer and adviser service and IT
delivery and support
Prudential UK ("Prudential") has today entered into a major partnership
agreement with Capita Group Plc ("Capita") to outsource a large proportion of
its in-force and new business policy administration. Under the terms of the
proposed agreement, Capita will provide customer servicing, policy
administration, new business processing, claims activity and related IT support
to Prudential UK.
Nick Prettejohn, Chief Executive, Prudential UK, said: "The agreement with
Capita is another significant milestone in our programme to deliver continued
superior performance and profitability in our UK business. We have set out very
clear priorities for the business and this agreement helps us to deliver our
strategy by removing fixed costs from our operations and achieving significant
operating efficiencies. It will allow us to concentrate on using our competitive
strengths and proven capabilities to realise the attractive opportunities in the
market for retirement savings and income.
"After detailed analysis of a number of potential options, it was clear that
Capita best enables us to deliver continued high levels of customer service
while providing ongoing certainty over costs. They are a partner with a proven
record of high standards of service for customers and advisers, IT delivery and
support while also offering the best overall employment solution for our staff."
Cost savings target and partnership with Capita
The proposed 15-year agreement with Capita will enable Prudential to:
- Achieve its overall cost saving target of GBP195 million per annum by the
end of 2010;
- Reduce unit costs per-policy by 32 per cent by 2011; and
- Provide a significant reduction in long-term expense risk by providing
certainty on per-policy costs as the number of policies in the Mature Life
and Pensions back-book decreases over the coming years (see Notes to
Editors).
The agreement provides for Capita to acquire business and assets from
Prudential, for a consideration of GBP25 million, including part of the business
of PPMS, Prudential's offshore operation based in Mumbai.
At its 2007 Interim Results, Prudential confirmed that actions were in place to
deliver GBP115 million of the GBP195 million savings by the end of 2007. The
agreement with Capita will lead to savings of GBP60 million per annum by the end
of 2010. The remaining GBP20 million per annum of cost savings, of which
approximately GBP11 million has already been delivered, will be generated from
across the rest of the UK business by the end of 2010.
The total one-off investment costs of achieving the GBP195 million of savings will
be GBP176 million, after deducting the proceeds from the sale of part of PPMS. Of
these one-off costs, GBP57 million were incurred in 2006.
This investment will deliver enhanced service for customers and advisers through
a substantial simplification of policy administration processes and migration of
in-force and new business policies from 15 of Prudential's legacy systems to two
Capita platforms. The total value of the agreement with Capita, including
investment spend, is expected to be approximately GBP722 million over the lifetime
of the contract.
The savings, net of investment costs, are expected to result in a GBP60 million
benefit to embedded value over the period to 2011.
Staff
Under the terms of the proposed agreement, approximately 1,750 (1,000 in
Stirling and 750 in Reading) of Prudential's staff working in the UK in Customer
Services, Customer Operations, Information Technology and other related support
functions will transfer to Capita under Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of
Employment) Regulations (TUPE) in April 2008. This will follow a collective
consultation process.
In addition, approximately 1,250 out of PPMS's 1,800 staff in Mumbai will also
transfer to Capita. Capita has committed that all employees affected will be
offered roles on their existing terms and conditions of employment. PPMS will
remain a captive offshore service centre and will continue to deliver a number
of important activities for the UK business. Prudential intends to grow PPMS as
a shared services operation for the Prudential Group as a whole.
Paul Pindar, Chief Executive of Capita, added: "Capita is delighted to engage in
this strategic alliance with Prudential UK. Our aim is to build a mutually
beneficial partnership to support the further growth of both Prudential and
Capita in the life and pensions industry. We look forward to working with
Prudential to deliver high quality outsourced support and welcoming all
transferring staff to the Capita Group's thriving life and pensions business.
"We are committed to expansion in both the UK life and pensions market and our
Indian operations to meet increasing demand. The operations and employees
transferring to Capita under this agreement will allow us to take a significant
step forward with these ambitions. The Stirling operation will be developed into
a Centre of Excellence for life and pensions administration. The Reading
operation will initially continue to be delivered from its current site while we
investigate the feasibility of combining it with our operations in Cheltenham or
Swindon, or from an alternative site in Reading. And in Mumbai, which will also
be developed into a Centre of Excellence, the combination of our increased scale
and capability will provide a market leading off-shoring base from which to
support our plans across the broad range of our service offerings."
Capita already delivers a range of life and pension sales and administration
services for Prudential UK's business. Prudential and Capita signed an
outsourcing agreement in 2006 under which Capita delivers support for
Prudential's UK life and pensions operations from Belfast. Capita has also been
successfully providing a full range of life and pensions administration services
for Prudential's international cross border life assurance portfolio of new and
existing business in Dublin since 2003.
- ENDS -
ENQUIRIES TO:
MEDIA ANALYSTS / INVESTORS
Prudential Group
Jon Bunn 020 7548 3559 James Matthews 020 7548 3561
William Baldwin-Charles 020 7548 3719
Prudential UK
Steve Colton 020 7150 3136
Darragh Leeson 020 7150 2600
Capita
Shona Nichols 020 7799 1525 Shona Nichols 020 7799 1525
Caroline Mooney 020 7654 2152
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Wire Services Conference Call
There will be a conference call today for wire services at 9.00am hosted by Nick
Prettejohn, Chief Executive, Prudential UK. Dial in number: +44 (0)208 609 0793.
Passcode: 155439#
Prudential UK
Prudential is a leading life and pensions provider to approximately 7 million
customers in the United Kingdom. It employs approximately 4,100 staff in the UK
and 1,800 in Mumbai
Prudential UK has offices located in London, Reading, Dublin, Stirling and
Mumbai.
Products: Bulk and Individual Annuities, Corporate Pensions, With-Profits and
Unit-Linked Bonds, Savings and Investments, Lifetime Mortgages, Healthcare and
Protection.
Distribution Channels: Direct-to-customers/PruDirect (telephone, internet and
mail), Financial Advisers, Business to Business (consulting actuaries and
benefit advisers), and Partnerships (affinities and banks).
Mature Life and Pensions ("ML&P") is the term used to describe the collection of
products Prudential holds for its existing life and pensions customers. The
business comprises the vast majority (approximately 7 million policies) of
Prudential UK's in-force policies. It consists of group pensions, individual
pensions, investment bonds and life and endowment policies (annuities, lifetime
mortgages, protection, healthcare and general insurance are not included within
the book of business). Most of these products are still open to new business,
for instance through top-ups, but the main role of the ML&P operation is to look
after this existing business and deliver the best possible value from it for
shareholders and policyholders. Prudential expects that this business will
continue to be a significant source of new business, particularly through
internal annuity vestings and in the corporate pensions arena.
The Mature Life and Pensions back-book represents around two-thirds of
Prudential UK's total cost base. A key priority for Prudential is to continue to
deliver embedded value through the ML&P business and as the back-book runs down
over the course of the next few years (over 40 per cent of the in-force policies
mature in the next five years), this creates an inherent pressure on unit costs.
As large proportions of the costs are currently fixed, this means that unit
costs would continue to rise beyond the levels allowed for when the policies
were originally sold. Prudential, therefore, highlighted an aggressive target to
reduce per-policy unit processing costs in line with the reducing numbers of
in-force policies.
Capita Group
The Capita Group Plc is the UK's leading provider of integrated professional
support service solutions. The Group's service capabilities encompass business
process outsourcing, (BPO), customer services, administration and support, human
resources, ICT, property consultancy, finance & treasury and consultancy
delivered to both public sector and private organisations.
Capita provides core administrative support to a number of UK and overseas life
and pensions companies, including MetLife, the Children's Mutual, Lincoln
Financial Group, Resolution, Zurich and Co-operative Financial Services.
Including this agreement, Capita Life & Pensions will be responsible for
administering approximately 23 million policies.
With 28,500 employees at more than 250 offices across the UK, Channel Islands,
Ireland and India, Capita is quoted on the London Stock Exchange (CPI.L), and is
a constituent of the FTSE100 with revenues for 2006 of GBP1,739 million.
Further information on The Capita Group Plc can be found at:
www.capita.co.uk.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange