Life insurance giant Prudential GC Alan Porter oversaw serious expansion in 2017 as the company explored new markets. A key deal was the acquisition of a majority stake in Zenith Life of Nigeria. The transaction, which was completed in July, also saw Prudential enter into bancassurance partnerships with Zenith Bank in Nigeria and Ghana. Above all, the deal represented Prudential’s entrance into the Nigerian market, Africa’s largest economy. Prudential’s group and Africa legal teams played a pivotal part in striking the deal. Simon Ramage, who has been with Prudential since 2010, heads up the company’s group legal function. Kim Bromley, Prudential’s head of legal for Africa, has been with the insurer since 2012. The group and UK legal teams also picked up prominent roles in striking a ten-year strategic partnership with Tata Consultancy Services, a global leader in IT, business process and digital services. The rationale behind the partnership was to use Tata’s expertise to enhance Prudential’s services to UK savings and retirement customers. Last year also saw Clifford Chance advise Prudential for the first time on a heavyweight transaction. The Magic Circle firm, led by finance partner Maggie Zhao and M&A partner Hilary Evenett, was on hand as Prudential picked up a vital share of Bradford & Bingley loans from the UK Government, the total value of which was £11.8bn. At the time, Zhao said: ‘To our knowledge, it is the first large-scale UK portfolio acquisition won by an insurance company through a competitive bidding process. This is also one of the first transactions Prudential put together to implement its pan-European portfolio acquisition strategy, competing directly with traditional private equity houses and asset managers in this market.’ Porter comments: ‘Our role is to support the Prudential group in achieving its strategic and operational objectives while ensuring that it manages legal risk. It does this through integration with the business, a seat at the group executive committee table and close involvement with our individual business unit leadership teams.’ Porter recently created the role of head of operations for group legal, governance and secretariat. Benjamin Devon, a risk and compliance lawyer who has been with Prudential since 2013, assumed the new role and is tasked with promoting greater collaboration between the group legal, governance and secretariat functions. ‘We provide a supportive environment to our colleagues and actively encourage career development opportunities across our geographies,’ says Porter. ‘This model is designed to enable our lawyers to fulfil their potential and drives our success as an in-house legal community.’