- Legal & General CEO Nigel Wilson to retire after more than a decade
- Has delivered total return of more than 200% in that time
- Wilson to stick around until successor appointed
It is never nice for the head of a business when shares go up when their departure is announced so Legal & General (LGEN) Nigel Wilson will take the negative share price move on news of his retirement as a worthy accolade.
Wilson is set to retire having assumed the role of CEO on 30 June 2012, he previously served as chief financial officer of the company from 2009. Since he took the top job, the shares have delivered a total return of 214% according to SharePad data, outperforming its FTSE 350 life insurance peers Aviva (AV.) and Prudential (PRU).
In that context it’s understandable investors are sorry to see Wilson go, the shares falling 2.9% to 253p this morning.
TARGETING A SMOOTH SUCCESSION
Wilson is at least sticking around to smooth the succession - a process which is expected to take up to a year - and in the interim will stick to the company’s previously outlined strategy.
Describing Wilson as a ‘world-class leader’ Legal & General chair John Kingman said: ‘Nigel has successfully navigated significant geopolitical changes as well as challenges in the regulatory and market environments of each of our core businesses and has steered the group into a position of strength from which it can continue developing on behalf of its shareholders, customers and people.’
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould commented: ‘The market reaction suggests Wilson will be missed. The shares have made progress under his tenure as he has quietly got on with the job of creating a more coherent business.’
DISCLAIMER: Financial services company AJ Bell referenced in this article owns Shares magazine. The author of this article (Tom Sieber) and the editor (James Crux) own shares in AJ Bell.
