Stephen Hester would almost certainly resign as chief executive of RSA if the country’s biggest commercial insurer agrees to a £5.6 billion takeover by Zurich.
Speculation mounted yesterday that Mr Hester, a serial turnaround executive and former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, could be approached for the top job at Barclays after Antony Jenkins was deposed last month.
Britain’s third biggest lender is searching for a new chief executive, with John McFarlane currently doing the job of executive chairman.
The future of Mr Hester at RSA, which he joined 19 months ago, came as Zurich beat a Takeover Panel deadline to table a 550p-a-share bid that the RSA board said it was minded to accept.
Mr Hester, whose career also includes spells at Abbey, the mortgage lender now part of Santander, and British Land, could leave RSA with a share of an annual bonus that could be worth a maximum of £1.5 million depending on performance this year. He would also be eligible for part of a payout under a long-term scheme worth £3.2 million based on the offer price, depending on when he left and how he performed. Mr Hester, 55, who last year earned £2.1 million in salary and bonus, also owns 21,500 shares in RSA, according to the most recent annual report, worth a further £118,250 at the 550p-a-share offer price.
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Analysts said that if Zurich was successful it would look to make hundreds of millions of pounds in cost savings, putting thousands of jobs at risk. RSA employs 19,000 staff worldwide, of whom just under 7,000 work in Britain.
His fond farewells