UBS Warburg pocketed most of the £23m (€37.4m) advisory fees from Prudential's latest foray into the US but it faces stiff competition to advise the acquisitive UK life insurer on its next purchase.

Prudential's interim profits revealed that it had spent £82m in the wake of its aborted merger with American General of the US. This included £62m on staff retention at Jackson National, its US insurance division, and at PPM America (PPMA) its US investment management operation, which has $48bn worth of assets under management. Sources close to the deal estimated that around £17m would have been paid to UBS Warburg and £6m split between Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, its European legal advisers, Cleary, Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, its US lawyers, and KPMG its accountants.