PARIS, April 1 (Reuters) - AXA's chief executive Henri de Castries is facing growing questions about the French insurer's push into emerging markets and anaemic share price performance, but the 57-year-old former paratrooper says he is confident his strategy will win through.
Although AXA shares have strongly rebounded this year after a dismal performance in 2010, they trade at among the lowest price-to-book multiples in the sector and are plagued by perceptions that the group is ill-equipped for a post-crisis world.
In an interview with Reuters de Castries blamed the stock's underperformance on exposure to rock-bottom interest rates in Europe and the United States, as well as difficulties closing a long-running deal to buy out its Asia-Pacific operations.
But he said the group's 2015 turnaround plan and the closure of the AXA Asia-Pacific deal would close the valuation gap and prove that there is no need to adjust the strategy.
"It's clear that the sector has not been performing well and last year we have been performing worse than the sector," de Castries said.
"But it is in the process of being corrected because our actions are becoming more visible and because long-term interest rates are not the threat they were seen as being last year."
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