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Article taken from:

Quarterly Bulletin
Winter Edition
January 2010

Onwards and upwards into 2010 . . .

A New Year's message from Principal's CEO, Hugh Titcomb

"2009 was undoubtedly a challenging year for the financial markets as investors and their advisors battled with digesting a raft of negative economic data across the Globe whilst at the same time seeking early signs of a possible recovery. The significant rally in the equity markets since last March reflects a growing confidence that economic recovery is underway and the global economy is now emerging from recession.

Recovery within the UK itself has so far lagged that of its peers, although some restoration of economic growth is anticipated over the next quarter or two. Whilst we will clearly continue to face strong headwinds over the coming months, not least due to the inevitable uncertainty of the forthcoming general election, we are cautiously optimistic that economic recovery will be sustained and, allied to this, expect to see further growth in the equity markets over the medium term.  

Here at Principal we are committed to providing a first class service to our clients supported by a rigorous investment process and operational excellence. Since joining as CEO in April, we have made a number of key personnel appointments across all parts of our business and we all look forward with tremendous enthusiasm to continuing to provide a truly rewarding service to all our clients
and intermediary contacts.

Your support over the past year is hugely appreciated and this has helped us add scale to the business such that we now manage approaching £1billion of investment assets. Going forwards into 2010 and beyond, with the support of our shareholder, Sanlam, we have plans to develop the business further with our commitment to client service being at the core of everything we do. We aim to be as accessible as possible and as part of our medium term plans we will be looking at the possibility of expanding our office network beyond our existing three locations of Sevenoaks, London and Bath. 

On behalf of all at Principal, thank you for your support during 2009 and our very best wishes for 2010."

Hugh H Titcomb