Prudential, the biggest UK insurer by market value, said it plans to place its next CEO in Asia when Mike Wells, its top executive, retires in March, the latest step in its transformation and greater reliance on the region. Since becoming CEO in 2015, Wells has shifted the London-based company’s focus to primarily providing life and health insurance and asset management services in Asia and Africa, spinning off its UK and European retirement business in 2019 and its US retirement arm last year. He first joined the company in 1995. “Given Prudential’s focus on the growth markets of Asia and Africa, the board has decided with this managed transition of the leadership structure, that the roles of the group CEO and the group CFO will be based in Asia, where Prudential’s largest businesses, the group regulator and the rest of the senior management team are located,” the company said in a statement . Hong Kong is Prudential’s largest market, with about 1,500 employees. The company also has dual primary listings in both London and Hong Kong, and many of its senior managers are located in the city. In February 2020, activist investor Third Point urged the insurer to move its headquarters to Hong Kong . In September 2021, the insurer raised HK$18.5 billion (US$2.4 billion) from a share placement in Hong Kong to repay older debt and fund its global expansion. Shares of Prudential rose 0.4 per cent to close at HK$131.70 in Hong Kong on Thursday. Prudential’s board is conducting a search of both internal and external candidates to be based in Asia and succeed Wells. Following his retirement, he will assist the incoming CEO in the transition process and act as an adviser to the company for a period of time, Prudential said. “I would like to thank Mike for his outstanding contribution to Prudential over the last 26 years, and particularly as CEO for the last seven years,” Shriti Vadera, Prudential’s chair, said in a statement. “He has led the group through one of the most significant periods of change in its 174-year history.” Mark FitzPatrick, Prudential’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer, will serve as interim CEO when Wells steps down. In March, FitzPatrick will be succeeded as CFO by James Turner, the company’s chief risk and compliance officer. Avnish Kalra, the company’s chief risk officer for Asia and Africa, will then take Turner’s role. Both Turner and Kalra are based in Hong Kong. “Having led the transformation of the group into an Asia and Africa focused life and health insurer, now is the right time for me to hand over to an Asia-based team to take the company forward,” Wells said. “I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the staff and board of Prudential during my tenure.”