British insurer Friends Provident said yesterday it had agreed to a takeover by investment group Resolution in a deal worth £1.858 billion (US$3.06 billion).
Friends chief executive Trevor Matthews said the insurer looked “forward to playing a leading role in industry consolidation.”
The takeover comes amid a tentative recovery for major insurance companies, which have been hard hit by the global economic crisis and have put in place painful cost-cutting programs including massive job cuts.
Meanwhile the acceptance by Friends, which specializes in life insurance and pensions, comes after it had turned down three other approaches by Resolution since last month.
“Resolution and Friends Provident believe that consolidation is both desirable and inevitable given the fragmentation, complexity and low returns in these sectors,” the pair said in a joint statement.
Resolution said its offer, which is worth £1.86 billion, is based on the investment group’s closing share price of 88.25 pence on Friday.
Resolution is offering 0.9 shares for each Friends Provident share. As part of the deal, each Friends shareholder will be able to accept 79.4 pence for each share up to a total of 2,500 shares.
The maximum cash amount offered by Resolution is £500 million, or about 27 percent of the total value of the acquisition.
The investment group added that it expected to follow up the takeover with further transactions.
“The Resolution Board believes that this consolidation and restructuring will, over time, deliver significant value to enlarged group shareholders,” it said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique