Prudential chief says combined group will grow dramatically

"We have doubled the size of Prudential's Asian business three times in the past 10 years," said Tidjane Thiam, the Pru's chief executive, at the weekend. That was a factually correct statement, so no problem there. The next part was less clear: "If you take that as precedent you could anticipate, with a dramatic shift in scale from this transaction – starting with low penetration generally, a rapidly growing middle class and a high propensity to save – a business that will grow dramatically," he said. But should investors take the past 10 years as a precedent? Generally speaking, it is far easier for small companies, rather than large ones, to double in size every three years. Is Thiam suggesting that the Pru's models show that even an organisation the size of a combined Pru-AIA could achieve such a rate in Asia? If so, he ought to say so explicitly because, amid all the impressive graphs about GDP growth and low penetration rates for savings products, such a specific claim is hard to find in last week's presentation to the City.