Axa falls on National Mutual brand name

WELLINGTON - National Mutual's name, one of the oldest in the New Zealand business world, is about to vanish in another shake-up at the fund manager.

In August, National Mutual will adopt the name of its 51 per cent shareholder, French insurance giant Axa.

From next month National Mutual Holdings - a listed company based in Melbourne - will begin selling products on both sides of the Tasman under the Axa name.

Eventually that company's name is also likely to be changed to Axa, the international insurer which took control of National Mutual in 1995.

National Mutual denies its New Zealand head office, based in Wellington, is about to be severely scaled back as backroom operations shift to Australia.

"We have not outsourced any operations to Australia," New Zealand chief executive Ross McEwan said.

The restructuring aimed to cut management expenses and overheads, and "is not a programme to move business out of New Zealand," Mr McEwan said.

He said the restructuring, announced a year ago, aimed to cut controllable management expenses by a third. The programme, which ends in September, had already saved 19 per cent compared with last year. Redundancies were expected.

National Mutual would stay in its Wellington offices on The Terrace but would lease out four floors that were no longer needed.

Mr McEwan would not say how much would be spent on the rebranding launch, though he did say that in the first three months the outlay would be twice what National Mutual usually spent on brand advertising in a year. Most of the money would come from Axa.

Industry experts criticised the name change. They said National Mutual, set up in 1880, had one of the best recognised names in New Zealand's financial services industry, while Axa was largely unknown.

Mr McEwan said the name change would help reposition the company as a full financial services group. People still associated National Mutual with insurance despite the company now also selling other products. - NZPA