Resolution renamed Friends Life as Clive Cowdery departs
LIFE insurance and pensions group Resolution is to mark the end of a long-running restructuring programme by changing its name to Friends Life.
The FTSE 100 company, set up in 2008 by entrepreneur Clive Cowdery to buy and merge underperforming insurance businesses, reported a 59 per cent rise in 2013 operating profits to £436million.
Chief executive Andy Briggs, who has spearheaded £160million of cost-cutting over the past three years, said: “We reached a significant turning point for the group in 2013 and are entering a new and exciting chapter.”
Under Cowdery, Resolution merged the former Friends Provident with parts of Axa and Bupa, creating a group with five million policyholders. It claims that one in nine people retiring in the UK is a customer, either through personal or corporate schemes, helping to drive a sharp rise in sales of enhanced annuity products. The shares fell 22p to 351p.
Cowdery and co-founder John Tiner are to step down as non-executive directors as they build up a separate Resolution business in the US life insurance industry.