Talk about lucky escapes. Zurich, the insurer that was proposing to pay £5.6bn for Royal & SunAlliance, has just lost its chief executive.
After walking up to the top of the hill with RSA, Martin Senn walked back down again claiming that he wanted to focus on fixing the group’s general insurance business.
Now his focus will be on finding himself a new job.
He will be temporarily succeeded by his chairman, Tom de Swaan, who says he wants to find an “external entrepreneurial leader” with a “deep knowledge” of insurance to take the reins.
But it isn’t so much an entrepreneur Zurich needs as a Mr Fixit who can sort out its problems quickly enough to keep the company clear of opportunistic bids (Mr de Swaan would still prefer Zurich to play bidder in a rapidly consolidating market despite the RSA débâcle).
Those of a mischievous cast of mind might suggest that he could do worse than weigh up the candidacy of one Stephen Hester. He’s the man, once of Royal Bank of Scotland, who has been engaged in turning around RSA. He also managed to outnegotiate Mr Senn when it came to RSA’s price. Such negotiating skills would come in rather handy at a company looking to do deals.
