Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter are likely to have earned a hefty percentage of the £25m (€40m) Prudential has paid out in IPO fees and costs in the past few weeks.

Morgan Stanley lead-managed Prudential's Wall Street listing and accompanying $240m (€252m) share sale. Others to have benefited from Prudential's successful attempt to raise its US profile were co-lead managers Cazenove, Goldman Sachs and UBS Warburg and the company's legal advisers, Freshfields, and US law firm Cleary Gottlieb.