Sacrebleu. And few have a bigger wedge of cash to throw around than 41-year-old Moreau, one of the golden boys of French finance, whose company has recently been whizzing off British bid rumours like sparks off a Catherine wheel. Aviva, Prudential, Standard Life, Legal & General, Friends Provident, Scottish Widows — is there a British rival that hasn’t been listed as a takeover target for Axa?

“You get used to this press speculation very quickly,” says Moreau, in his heavily accented English. “I don’t think the French press would have jumped to the same conclusions.”

Perhaps not, but something is clearly stirring at the French firm, the world’s second-largest insurer and 15th biggest company by revenues. In Britain — where in the past it has swallowed Equity & Law, Sun Life, Provincial, Guardian Royal Exchange and PPP — it has long underperformed, and the arrival of Moreau, youthful protégé of global boss Henri de Castries, signals a change of pace. No wonder the press are in a lather.

Moreau, resident in London since June, merely offers a Gallic shrug. Sitting in shirtsleeves in an anonymous top-floor office near Bank in the City of London, he is thoughtful and convivial, but gives so little away on the bid speculation that you might think he was hiding something.

Because on all other topics he is disarmingly frank. This hot-and-cold twist, according to Axa insiders, is typical Moreau. Short and wiry, he is a rugby fanatic who used to play hooker at university — he knows just when to keep the ball covered, and when to release it.

It makes him one of the group’s most formidable negotiators, hard to pin down — his sentences sometimes trickle into whispers — yet always thinking ahead. “He’s incredibly smart,” says another Axa director, “and always very charming.”

And always with a purpose. Moreau has had a sparkling 15-year career at Axa, moving from its treasury department to its American asset-management arm and, more recently, transforming the performance of Axa Investment Managers (IM). He has not come to London to drift around exuding indifference.

“I’m more of a change agent than a manager who runs a company,” he finally admits. “Axa IM was successful, but it will now go through a period of consolidation, and I’m not the person to do that. So I asked for this job.” That’s because Axa in Britain is now positioned for rapid growth.

Timing is crucial. Axa’s global insurance empire covers Europe, America and Asia but it takes only eighth place by market share in the life-assurance sector here, and has spent years wrapped up in internal change — melding together its various mergers and acquisitions.

()It has also, like others here, been rocked by the drop in equity markets, the closure of with-profits products, and large-scale regulatory changes. Now the seas are steadier, it can look at empire-building again — part of an internal plan dubbed Ambition 2012 to double Axa group revenues and triple its earnings.

“We’ve spent a lot of time and energy fixing problems here. Now we’ve fixed the basics we’ll go back into the market and fight,” says Moreau. That could include acquisitions, or just fresh recruitment and investment. “For, you know,” adds Moreau, “big acquisitions can be disturbing from a cultural point of view.”

But the British insurance market is highly competitive, and if Moreau is to drive Axa to the top he may have to buy rivals. The market here is also far more complicated than others in Europe, with more specialised products. “The fact is, our most successful companies are very specialised,” he says, “and my first objective will be to specialise people.”