Prudential Plans to Exit Emerging Markets and Push Harder Into Asset Management

A Smaller Map, a Bigger Payoff

Prudential isn't trying to be everywhere anymore. It does business in 10 countries today.

Prudential's current emerging markets include South Africa, Ghana, India, Mexico, and Brazil. Prudential has already announced plans to sell its Kenya and Indonesia insurance operations.

Since Sullivan took over last year, the company has been pushing money into capital-light businesses, which do not tie up as much balance-sheet cash. Those include PGIM, its asset-management arm, plus group coverage and individual life insurance.

Investors have been watching. Prudential's shares are up roughly 12% since Sullivan took over.

The Dow Jones US Life Insurance Index has climbed 19% over the same stretch.

Japan Stays, but It Could Shrink

Japan is still part of the plan, though it has been messy. The company faced a regulatory investigation into misconduct by employees at its Japan unit, and it voluntarily stopped selling life insurance there until Nov. 5.

It also dropped its earnings-per-share growth target, a common profit yardstick, about a year after introducing it. The CEO says the company is not giving up on Japan.

He just expects Japan's contribution to earnings to become smaller as other businesses grow faster.

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PGIM Is the Engine

PGIM is the growth story. Prudential wants the asset manager to contribute 25% of its adjusted operating income, a measure of profit from day-to-day operations.

That share is about 12% now. Acquisitions are part of the plan, and so is a longer-term target of a profit margin of more than 30%.

The asset manager is branching out into asset-backed finance, loans backed by assets like equipment or inventory, and direct-lending, where money goes straight to companies instead of through a bank. Higher returns in those areas help Prudential price its retirement products competitively.

A few business development companies (investment firms that specialize in lending to private businesses) had investors trying to pull their cash out of private credit funds. Blue Owl Capital Inc., Blackstone Inc. and Apollo Global Management Inc. each responded earlier this year by putting caps on how much regular investors could withdraw from those funds.

Sullivan says those caps do not weaken private credit's long-term prospects. "Our portfolios are very well underwritten, are performing very well," he said.

The broader push targets higher-fee, higher-margin assets outside the traditional stock-and-bond world. Prudential also plans to enter private equity and infrastructure equity.

Private equity means owning companies outside public markets, and infrastructure equity means owning stakes in projects like ports and power grids. PGIM is already active in private-equity secondaries, which means buying existing stakes in private-equity funds.

What the Plan Means for Your Portfolio

The cost side of the plan is just as aggressive. Prudential now targets $750 million in pretax cost savings by 2028.

That is up from an earlier goal of $150 million by 2027. CFO Yanela Frias says the savings will come from moving some support functions outside the US and cutting management layers.

That means job reductions, though the company has not set a specific number.

The efficiency push shows up in Prudential's adjusted operating expense ratio, which measures operating costs as a share of operating income. The ratio was 9.5% in 2025.

The new plan is to cut that ratio by 150 basis points over the next three years, a drop of 1.5 percentage points.

That is a sharper goal than its earlier plan to keep the ratio within a range of 8.5% to 10.5% through 2027.

For investors, the story is a company choosing where to fight. If PGIM delivers, more of Prudential's profit will come from a business with high margins and room to grow.

If the transition stumbles, the next 24 to 36 months is where the risk shows up. The targets are now public, so there is a clear way to measure whether the plan is working.

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