Resolution Ltd, owner of Friends Life, is reported to be closing its offices in Basingstoke and Manchester by the end of 2012. The consolidator launched Friends Life earlier this year, following the merger of Friends Provident and AXA UK life business acquired by Resolution last autumn. Friends Life is currently in the process of relocating [...]
Friends Provident is relocating its head office to the One New Change development in the City of London, moving from nearby Wood Street. The location will apparently provide a “fitting home” for the enlarged Friends, following the acquisition of the majority of AXA’s UK life business by parent company, Resolution Ltd, in September. The change, [...]
Bupa has announced that it is selling its UK protection and risk business, Bupa Health Assurance, to consolidator Resolution Ltd, for £165.15 million. The move reflects the group’s intention to focus on its healthcare businesses, including its health insurance products and services in the UK. Bupa Health & Wellbeing manging director, Dr Natalie-Jane Macdonald, comments: [...]
AXA has confirmed that it is in discussions with life insurance consolidator, Resolution Ltd, regarding the potential sale of part of its UK life & savings operations, for £2.75 billion. The deal would involve AXA retaining its Wealth Management and Direct Protection units while offloading the remainder of its UK life & savings business. The [...]
Closed life fund consolidator, Pearl Group, has revealed plans to raise £500 million of capital prior to an initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange. The group, which is best remembered for its lengthy battle to acquire Resolution in 2007, has told The Times that, while it sees itself in a market full [...]
Clive Cowdery has revealed plans for a £1 billion flotation of Resolution, a new acquisition vehicle. The company has the same name as an earlier venture by the insurance entrepreneur: the closed life consolidator acquired by Pearl Group last year. The initial public offering of the new Resolution is due to take place in November [...]
Pearl Group, the life assurer that acquired Resolution earlier this year for £4.9 billion, is closing its Glasgow and Peterborough offices. The move is expected to affect one-quarter of the group’s workforce and result in up to 480 job losses. Activities at the offices marked for closure will be scaled down and merged with Pearl’s [...]
The £5 billion acquisition of Resolution by Pearl Assurance has been delayed by three weeks by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which has to approve the change of ownership of Resolution. The terms of the merger of the UK’s two largest closed life funds consolidators were agreed late last year and include plans to free-up [...]
The chairman of Resolution, the closed life fund consolidator being acquired by Pearl Group, is selling his 3% stake in the business. Clive Cowdery founded Resolution in 2003 with a loan of £500,000; he went on to transform the business into a FTSE 100 company, via a series of acquisitions and mergers. This autumn Resolution [...]
Pearl Group and Resolution have agreed the terms of a takeover that will create a combined group with assets of £85 billion. The management boards of both closed life fund managers have formally consented to the terms of the Pearl bid, under which Resolution shareholders will receive 720p per share. The agreement values Resolution at [...]
Insurance group Pearl Assurance has today announced that it has finally reached common ground with Resolution as it moves to takeover its competitor in a move worth almost £5 billion after facing stiff competition from rival Standard Life. The announcement will see Pearl acquire the business and assets of Resolution in a move valued almost [...]
Pearl Assurance is expected to be successful in its £5 billion bid for Resolution, the closed-fund consolidator. A takeover battle with Standard Life drew to a close over the weekend, when the latter unexpectedly conceded defeat. Standard Life decided not to raise its cash-and-shares offer, which was worth less than the Pearl bid. The insurer [...]
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 [...]
Royal London, the mutual life company, may have to review its involvement in the takeover battle for Resolution, the closed life funds consolidator. Questions are being raised as to whether Royal London can continue its support for Pearl Group’s bid for Resolution, because of a fall in new life and pension sales in the first [...]
Standard Life has been reprimanded by the Takeover Panel for suggesting that it might increase its bid for Resolution, the closed life funds consolidator, and failing to do so. The panel has ruled that Standard Life is in breach of the Takeover Code, after the company announced that it may change the structure of its [...]
Following Standard Life’s £4.9 billion bid for Resolution at the end of last week, Pearl, Resolutions largest shareholder, increased its stake in the company from 16.5% to 24.18%. Last Friday, Resolution announced that it had agreed to Standard Life’s cash and shares bid, but within the hour Pearl returned with a revised bid and at [...]
Resolution, the closed life fund manger, is today considering a £5 billion conditional offer for the company, from Standard Life. If accepted, the cash and shares bid will bring an end to existing proposals for a merger between Resolution and Friends Provident. The Standard Life offer was made yesterday, only hours before the deadline set [...]
Shareholders of Resolution and Friends Provident have been told that they will be £2 billion better off if they agree to the proposed merger of the companies, rather than a takeover. The Takeover Panel’s deadline for bidders to declare their interest in Resolution has been set for tomorrow and Standard Life and Swiss Re are [...]
