Top Pru investors warm to AIA deal

Thiam also told investors AIA has been on his radar since September 2008, when he was Prudential's chief financial officer.

"We thought this is quite important because they do know the operations better than we may have thought," added the head of equities.

However, some investors are yet to be convinced.

"Tidjane is relatively unknown -- he's only been there for nine months and therefore for an unknown to be asking for this kind of money, people are reasonably sceptical," one said.

"There is also a bit of worry that they may redomicile -- we may end up buying all the stock and they may take off to Hong Kong," he added.

(Editing by David Cowell)