Sources familiar with the negotiations have said chief executive...

Sources familiar with the negotiations have said chief executive Francesco De Ferrari does not want to splinter the group and instead would prefer to stick to the company's three-year transformation strategy. Mr De Ferrari has previously said he considered the business undervalued.


Allan Gray managing director Simon Mawhinney said it was "no surprise at all" that parties were interested in buying AMP.

"AMP looks astonishingly cheap to us," he said. "Today is a once in a generation opportunity to buy a reasonable asset at a very depressed price."

"The company has had issues, that’s clear. But everything has a price. So it’s important not to divorce the two.

"Yes, AMP has or had or continues to have cultural issues that have impacted the business, but that doesn’t mean it's worth nought. There appears to be the will to fix these issues today, for the first time in a long time."