UK insurer Prudential has scrapped¹ plans to buy AIA, the Asian business of US insurer AIG.

英国保诚保险放弃收购美国友邦保险的计划，友邦保险是美国国际集团在亚洲的商业分部。

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Many Prudential shareholders said the company was offering too much for AIA

The deal collapsed⁵ after Prudential failed to negotiate a lower price for AIA.

In March, Prudential agreed to buy AIA for $35.5bn (£24.6bn), but last week asked for the price to be cut to nearer $30bn after shareholder² opposition⁶.

AIG said on Tuesday that it would not "not consider" any revision（修正，复习） to the terms of the deal.

The Prudential said it faced £450m ($653m) in costs related to the deal, including a break fee of about £152m.

Hard thinking

Prudential had sought to fund the takeover by raising £14.5bn from shareholders through a rights issue, the biggest in the UK's history.

But a number of the company's shareholders were opposed to the bid, believing the price being offered was too high.

They formed a rebel shareholder group, the Prudential Action Group, which planned to oppose the deal at a shareholder vote due to be held on 7 June.

That vote will not now be held.

Prudential chairman Harvey McGrath said the firm had taken heed⁷ of its investors⁸ wishes.

"We listened carefully to shareholders over the price and initiated⁹ a renegotiation of the terms with AIG," Mr McGrath said.

"Unfortunately, it has not been possible to reach agreement... we are therefore withdrawing from the transaction（交易，事务） ."

The collapse⁴ of the deal is expected to raise questions about the future of both him and his chief executive, Tidjane Thiam, with the company.

One of the Pru's bigger shareholders, Robert Talbot, chief investment officer at Royal London Asset Management, said some hard thinking was now needed.

"There certainly needs to be a proper review as to how the board came to the decision that this was the right deal at the right price - and who most strongly proposed that particular transaction," Mr Talbot told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The BBC's business editor, Robert Peston, said the deal was "an important event in the history of British stock market capitalism¹⁰（资本主义） ".

"It shows that conventional investment institutions are prepared to act more like the independent owners of a business and not as absentee（缺席者） landlords too readily compliant¹¹ with the wishes of managers," he said.