Management consultancy McKinsey has charged a fee of three million pounds from insurer Prudential Plc for advising it on its proposed 24.5 million pound AIA takeover bid, which eventually failed.
As per a report in The Telegraph , McKinsey will have to be paid around three million pounds for its work relating to the integration of the two companies in the proposed deal.
The payment will be part of the cost, amounting to around 450 million pounds, incurred by Prudential on its aborted deal for AIA Group, the Asian life insurance business of the American International Group.
Last week, British insurer Prudential Plc had scrapped its 24.5 million pound ($ 35.5 billion) takeover bid for AIA after failing to renegotiate a lower price for the deal.
The Telegraph report stated that the bill from McKinsey was the latest thing to annoy Prudential’s investors, who were already angry over the 81 million pound underwriting fees for a 14.5 billion pound rights issue that never happened and an estimated 66 million pounds of advisory fees.
Neptune Asset Management managing director and Prudential shareholder Robin Geffen said, “Why bring in McKinsey and run up three million pounds of bills before you even have shareholder approval for the deal? It’s a ridiculous thing to do and another cost that could have been avoided.”
Though the company declined to comment on the bill for McKinsey, the daily quoted sources close to the matter as saying that the consultancy firm had been working on “integration planning for the combined operation”.
The report also mentioned that Prudential chief executive Tidjane Thiam had worked with McKinsey in the past.
