Britannic Assurance
 |
|
| Industry | Insurance, Pensions, Life Assurance |
|---|---|
| Fate | Acquired by Pearl Group |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Defunct | May 2008 |
| Headquarters | London, England, UK |
|
Key people
|
Clive Cowdery, Chairman Andy Briggs, CEO |
| Revenue | £5,152.2 million (2006) |
| £482.3 million (2006) | |
| £531.3 million (2006) | |
|
Number of employees
|
40 (2009) |
| Website | www |
Resolution plc was a UK insurance company headquartered in the City of London. It was listed on the and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by the Pearl Group in May 2008.
The Resolution Life group was formed in 2004 to provide a vehicle for life funds that have been closed to new business, but have liabilities extending many years into the future, nicknamed zombie funds. The first purchase was the life insurance business of Royal & SunAlliance, followed by the purchase of Swiss Life's UK business.
In September 2005 Resolution Life merged with the FTSE company Britannic Group, who had closed to new business in 2003.
In 2006 the merged group bought the life business of Abbey National, a transaction of £3.6 billion that brought entry into the FTSE 100.
On May 30, 2007, Resolution announced a strategic partnership with Capita which will result in the transfer of approximately two thousand staff in Customer Services and IT and a phased outsourcing of back-office customer services to India.
On July 25, 2007, Resolution agreed a merger with Friends Provident to create a new entity, Friends Financial, with a market cap of circa £8.6Bn, however by September 2007 it was announced that Hugh Osmond's Pearl Group, a critic of the proposed merger with Friends Provident, had undergone talks with Swiss Re about a potential deal to take over Resolution, but talks broke down. On 10 October 2007, Pearl made a formal offer of 660 pence per share, worth approximately £4.5 billion, in conjunction with the Royal London Mutual Insurance Society.Standard Life and Swiss Re also entered the bidding for Resolution, and for a brief period on October 26, 2007 their cash and shares bid, worth £4.9 billion was recommended by the board, which called off any deal with Friends Provident. Within a short space of time, Pearl came back with an all-cash offer of 720 pence per share. In addition, Hugh Osmond, chief executive of Pearl, now controlled a stake of 24.1% of Resolution's ordinary shares, which would have effectively blocked any planned merger from Standard Life as it would have required 75% approval from shareholders. In mid-November 2007, Standard Life pulled out of the merger and the offer from Pearl was recommended by the board to shareholders.
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Wikipedia