Following the failed merger attempt last month, Friends Provident Plc announced that its chief executive Philip Moore would be leaving, while the company reviewed its strategy. Despite this, the company is eager to continue to increase its footprint in Asia.

The man seen to be largely responsible for this growth spurt is David Knights, FPI's regional sales director, Asia, who has overall responsibility for business development across the region. He has held this position since January 2003, and during that time he has overseen a large increase in business volume in the company's Hong Kong business and the recent opening of a second Asian office in Singapore.

'Between 2003 and 2006 we doubled our new business volume. If I can achieve that again from 2007 to 2009 we'll be very satisfied,' Mr Knights said.

'With regards to the next two or three years we would like to replicate the growth rate we've enjoyed over the past three years. In Hong Kong, it surprises people when we say we turned over about HK$750million in new business last year with a staff of about 35 people. We punch well above our weight in terms of the results we get from a pretty small operation relative to some of the players here in Hong Kong.

'There are good reasons for that. First, we don't have our own distribution network. Our distribution is all third party, all independent. The other thing is our use of technology. In the past two years we have ensured that our business was placed on the same platform as our UK parent company, enabling us to handle large increases in new business.'

Mr Knights said the company's expanding business in Asia would mean an increase in staff in Hong Kong. He said FPI invested a significant amount of resources and time on staff development and training. 'We have a two-tiered approach. First we encourage our staff to equip themselves with professional qualifications that are recognised in Hong Kong,' he said. 'We also spend a lot of time on personal and vocational development, and we use our UK parent group to enable our staff to receive high quality training. The assets we emphasise include an understanding of the local markets, a knowledge of the independent adviser marketplace here and the required language skills.

'Another thing is empathy, understanding both our distributors, and their customers in turn.'

Mr Knights said Asia was the biggest earner for FPI, accounting for around 50 per cent of the non-UK new business that the company wrote.

'The principals on which we seek new opportunities are two-fold. Our distribution is focused on third-party distribution, specifically independent financial advisers, financial planners and banks that run insurance broking arms.

'We therefore tend to focus on the markets in Asia which have that infrastructure already in place. The other aspect is to seek to grow our business in markets where there's a high level of regulation and maturity in the market.'

Mr Knights said Hong Kong was a natural starting point for FPI in Asia because it fitted both those criteria. 'There's already an established independent distribution sector here and it is one of the best regulated markets in this region,' he said.

'We started the new operation in Singapore this year and that will be the hub for any activities that we conduct in Southeast Asia, although Hong Kong will remain central to our plans in the future. While there are parallels between Hong Kong and Singapore, the nature of the market differs in terms of the type of products offered and the distribution that we're aiming for there.'

Mr Knights said Hong Kong and Singapore would remain FPI's core bases in Asia. 'Our revenue in Hong Kong is up by 25 per cent and that's without the Singapore business. With Singapore included, our Asia business is up about 43 per cent from last year. We know the most important factors sustaining this for the next few years is getting attractive products onto the market, ensuring our service and hiring and retaining good people so they can drive our future development.'

FPI milestones

1990 Launches and commences cross-border business from Britain

2001 Floats on the London Stock Exchange and becomes a constituent of the FTSE100 Index

2002 Acquires Royal and Sun Alliance International Financial Services, including its Hong Kong business, operational since 1988

2007 Opens a new branch in Singapore as Southeast Asia hub