Mohl to leave AMP in good shape

Andrew Mohl

AMP Limited has announced that its chief executive, Andrew Mohl, will be leaving the company later this year at the same time as reporting a 27 per cent increase in underlying profit to $534 million for the six months ended June 30, 2007.

The company said that it had accelerated the succession planning process with a view to replacing Mohl.

AMP said the 27 per cent increase in underlying profit had been driven by record retail net cash flows, strong growth in assets under management, further improvements in capital and cost efficiency and market leading investment performance.

The AMP result was strongly supported by AMP Financial Services, which announced that net cash flows had risen by 110 per cent to $1.66 billion, excluding one-off corporate superannuation mandate wins of $1.69 billion in the second quarter of 2006.

Commenting on the result, AMP Financial Services managing director Craig Dunn said retail net cash flows in AMP’s Australian business were particularly pleasing, more than doubling to $1.63 billion.

“The growth reflects the benefits of the Federal Government’s ‘simpler super’ changes, which clearly position superannuation as the preferred long-term savings vehicle,” he said.

“AMP planners were busy in the lead up to June 30, as customers took advantage of the opportunity to make additional contributions. We now expect the focus to shift to the annuities and pension market for the rest of the year,” Dunn said.

He said AMP Financial Planning recorded net cash flows of $1.2 billion for the quarter, up 99 per cent on the corresponding quarter of 2006.

Commenting on Mohl’s departure at the end of 2007, AMP chairman Peter Mason said the board would be reviewing a short list of candidates both internal and external.

He said the board had agreed on the timing of Mohl’s departure at a board meeting yesterday after discussions had started earlier in the year.