Standard Life and Pearl battle for Resolution

by Gill Montia

Story link: Standard Life and Pearl battle for Resolution

The battle for ownership of Resolution, the closed life funds consolidator, has entered a new phase, with Standard Life accusing Pearl Group of making “self-serving and potentially misleading” statements about its £4.9 billion cash-and-shares offer for Resolution.

A warning shot from Standard Life described Pearl’s tactics as “looking increasingly desperate” and its comments as “verging on the defamatory”.

Pearl is Resolution’s largest shareholder and has recently increased its interest in the closed life funds manager.

It has opposed both the Standard Life bid and earlier plans for a merger between Resolution and Friends Provident.

In a recent statement Pearl described Standard Life’s business model as “coming under pressure” and its offer for Resolution as “ill-conceived and value destructive”.

Standard Life has responded by describing the comments as “utter nonsense” intended to mislead Resolution shareholders.

Pearl, which is making an all cash offer for Resolution, maintains that it is merely addressing questions raised by investors and analysts.

It calls Standard Life’s bid for Resolution as an attemp to reverse “a consistently stressed organic growth strategy” and has added that “a dilutive, value-destructive bid is no way to deal with the problem”.