Old Mutual

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Old Mutual plc

Type	Public (LSE: OML, JSE: OLOML)
Founded	1845
Headquarters	London, England, UK
Key people	Christopher Collins, Chairman Jim Sutcliffe, CEO
Industry	Insurance, banking and asset management
Revenue	£4,941 million (2007)
Operating income	£1,668 million (2007)
Net income	£1,189 million (2007)
Website	www.oldmutual.com

Old Mutual plc (LSE: OML, JSE: OLOML) is an international insurance company. Originally based in South Africa and focused on the South African market, it is now London based and has major assets in the United Kingdom and in the United States, where the majority of its funds under management were located before the Skandia deal mentioned below. Its South African holdings include Nedbank Group Ltd. (formerly known as Nedcor), South Africa's fourth largest banking group and Mutual & Federal - the second largest property and casualty insurer in South Africa. It also has minor operations in Namibia, Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe.

The company was founded in 1845 as a mutual insurance company. In 1999, it was demutualised and listed on London Stock Exchange and JSE Securities Exchange. Old Mutual is the largest financial company listed on the JSE Securities Exchange by market capitalisation. It is also a FTSE100 company.

In 2000 Old Mutual acquired United Asset Management, based in Boston, for US$1.46 billion in cash and assumed UAM net debt of around US$769 million. Old Mutual was able to acquire a large and diverse but primarily US-based asset manager, and spent the next several years restructuring the former UAM affiliate's economics.

Original Old Mutual headquarters in Cape Town.

In 2005 Old Mutual launched a $6.5bn (£3.6bn) bid to acquire majority control of Swedish insurer, Skandia. In late January 2006 it declared its offer unconditional, having gained a 72.3% holding. It has since initiated a compulsory purchase of the remaining shares. The completion of this would allow Skandia to be delisted from the Swedish stock exchange. [1] This acquisition brings Old Mutual businesses in the United Kingdom, several other countries in Europe, and in Latin America, the Far East and Australia.

It is the main sponsor of the Zimbabwe cricket team as well as the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon (run in Cape Town), the Encounters series of music concerts and the country's largest choral music competition, the National Choir Festival.