Tidjane Thiam bid for AIA, the Asian wing of the crisis-stricken AIG. A public battle ensued, with some investors complaining about the $35.5 billion price Prudential was offering to pay. The bid eventually failed, after the AIG board rejected a revised lower bid. AIA was later floated on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and the value of the company quickly rose above Prudential’s original bid price. Thiam came under strong personal criticism following the failure of the bid, partly as a result of the costs incurred by the company in pursuing the bid. However, he was re-elected as CEO at the May
Augustin Thiam Augustin Thiam Augustin Abdoulaye Thiam Houphouët (born 14 August 1952) is an Ivorian politician. Since 2011, he has been the governor of the Yamoussoukro Autonomous District. When Thiam was young, his father was government minister and the ambassador to Morocco. Thiam is also the grandnephew of Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Ivory Coast's first president. Thiam was trained as a medical doctor at the Université de Cocody and worked in public hospitals until 1989. He moved to Paris where he worked as a journalist. He returned to Ivory Coast in 1993 after the death of Houphouët-Boigny. In 1995, Thiam was appointed as the