Prudential Investment Management, the $947bn investment management business of the US group, Prudential Financial, has announced plans to change its name to "PGIM" from January 2016.
As the company expands its global client base, it has apparently found confusion between the two separate groups, Prudential Financial, headquartered in the US, and Prudential, headquartered in the UK, an increasing problem. Some parts of the US-based group go by the name of Pramerica when doing business outside the US.
Prudential Fixed Income will use PGIM in markets outside the US, where it currently uses the Pramerica name, beginning in January.
Prudential Mortgage Capital Company will be renamed PGIM Real Estate Finance globally in mid-2016.
Prudential Real Estate Investors will be renamed PGIM Real Estate globally in mid-2016.
Also, Prudential Investment Management is establishing PGIM Funds, an undertakings for collective investments in transferable securities (UCITS) platform serving the UK and Europe. Prudential Financial said the platform enables Prudential Investment Management's businesses to build beyond existing fixed-income UCITS to include a range of funds across asset classes for both institutional and individual investors.
"Our clients expect investment managers to simultaneously find the best investment opportunities around the world, while upholding the most rigorous standards of risk management," said David Hunt, CEO of Prudential Investment Management.
"The PGIM name represents our scale, and our conviction to deliver time-tested, long-term solutions and outcomes for institutional and retail investors."
Hunt told the Financial Times that the designation of the Prudential holding company as a systemically important financial institution (Sifi) – which brings extra oversight from the Federal Reserve – has had some unexpected benefits in the asset management arm. "Clients are rather liking it," he said. "It is not a bad thing to know that somebody else has been through and kicked the tyres and feels that you really do have a risk management system, that your model risks have all been tested and that you have been through the cyber security hoops the Fed wants you to go through."
People:David Hunt