Yahoo Finance Treasury Mandarin Kingman In Talks With L&G
One of Britain's most senior civil servants is a shock contender to become the next chairman Legal & General (LSE: LGEN.L - news) (L&G), the insurance and pensions giant, in a move likely to trigger renewed questions about the revolving door between Whitehall and the private sector.
Sky News has learnt that John Kingman, who is stepping down as second permanent secretary of the Treasury, has been approached about taking over from John Stewart at the FTSE-100 financial services group.
It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) was unclear this weekend how close Mr Kingman is to landing the role, although L&G told the stock exchange ten days ago that it "expects to be in a position to make an announcement on the appointment of a successor chair in the coming weeks".
It is possible that directors of the company, which has a market value of £14bn, could yet choose an alternative candidate.
If Mr Kingman were to be formally chosen by L&G's board, it would remain subject to the approval of the Prudential Regulation Authority, the main UK supervisor of the insurance industry.
It would also be subject to a statutory period of purdah by the committee which oversees the appointment of civil servants and ministers to private sector roles.
Such a consideration could be one of the reasons that L&G last month appointed Rudy Markham, an existing board member, as its interim chairman, according to a Whitehall insider.
Mr Kingman is well-known in the City, having been one of the primary architects of the bank rescue packages in 2008 which prevented Lloyds Banking Group (Other OTC: LLOBF - news) and Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) from outright collapse.
He then went on to run UK Financial Investments, the agency which manages the taxpayer's stakes in the bailed-out lenders, before returning to the Treasury and then moving to Rothschild, the investment bank.
Mr Kingman went back to the Treasury in 2012, and recently lost out to Tom Scholar in the race to become the finance ministry's permanent secretary.
Last month, he was appointed as the first chair of UK Research & Innovation, a new body being established by the Government to exploit scientific development more effectively.
If the Whitehall mandarin does take the L&G job, he would probably join as a non-executive director before becoming chairman next year, a headhunting sector source said on Sunday.
It would be unusual for a company of the stature of L&G to appoint someone so inexperienced in UK boardrooms as its chairman, although few who know him would doubt Mr Kingman's intellectual credentials for the post.
It would also prompt questions about the flow of senior public servants who take important jobs in the private sector, particularly in the wake of wide-ranging pensions reforms which have impacted major providers of annuities, such as L&G.
As the owner of Legal & General Investment Management, L&G has a stake in every blue-chip company listed in London and many more overseas.
Under Nigel Wilson, its widely respected chief executive, the group has sought to diversify into providing long-term capital for important infrastructure projects, including housing, hospitals and transport schemes.
L&G declined to comment on Sunday, while Mr Kingman was unavailable.
