Speculation is rife that Towry Law's future is under threat after AMP's new chief executive, Andrew Mohl, admitted that entering the UK insurance market was a mistake.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, at Merrill Lynch's Australian Investment Conference yesterday, Mohl was asked how close he was to AMP's UK interests, to which he replied: "We're going to have to look at the problem."
Mohl said he will seek to cut costs and fend off demands by UK regulators for another injection of cash.
In the longer term, he made it clear that he will re-assess the UK place in AMP's portfolio.
Mohl said: "Depending on the environment we face and the competitive pressures and regulations, we will obviously make decisions, in terms of whether we stay or whether we seek to exit."
Mohl added: "[With] the benefit of 20:20 hindsight, it would have been better not to buy into the insurance companies in the UK.
"I think all of the people at AMP have been distressed at the condition that the company has been in and we're absolutely determined to see AMP turn around.
"We've basically had two key problems. One has been the impact of incredibly tough markets on our business. Severe bear markets have nearly halved average share prices since the peak. The other problem has been how we communicated the impact."
