Time was when Axa could not put a foot wrong. The French insurer’s chief executive, Henri de Castries, became the poster boy of France’s global presence in financial services. Under his rule, Axa’s share price outperformed the Bloomberg Europe 500 Insurance index by almost 40 per cent – until two years ago.

Since then, worries about insurers’ capital adequacy have stripped away much of the glamour and value. Axa’s share price has plunged by no less than 78 per cent in the almost nine years since Mr de Castries took his post. Axa has lost more than half of its value this year alone. The fear is that the deterioration in the insurer’s equity portfolios will force it to raise capital. Investors worry that Axa is about to throw merger risk into the mix: it is rumoured to be one of the bidders for stricken US insurer AIG’s life assurance business.