Friends in need are friends indeed!!

Sorry for the corny title but I thought it was a good idea to get into the troubled affair of Friends Provident, which has recently unloaded investment manager Foreign and Colonial at a loss. The bid by Resolution for the British insurance company originally founded by Quakers seems just to be a bonanza for city firms. It seems an expensive way of getting Clive Cowdery et al on the Friends Provident board. I ploughed my way through the initial Friends Provident documentation as my wife has a few shares and an endowment policy with the company. Selling out for around 79 pence does not make much sense since the shareholding is a minimum from the original flotation so I suppose we will hang on and see what the Resolution deal brings. This could mean reduced service levels to endowment holders and poor prospects (to say the least) for
workers.
Money Marketing quotes a spokesman from the stockbrokers Charles Stanley, who said that "What we suspect has happened is that two groups of investors have put pressure on the Friends' board to do a deal, the first group being investors who wanted an exit from the stock and the other group being investors who have a stake in Resolution and realise that if Resolution is going to be successful in its consolidation project, then Friends had to be the first step." This quote is in the edition of August 20th.
Quite a few commentators say that it will be tricky for Resolution in terms of execution risk but I think there are a lot of insurance companies in the UK market place, which could be snapped up and make for easy cost-cutting.

UK direct property unit trusts prove a poor buy.

In the United Kingdom retail investors of direct property unit trusts have been hit by the double whammy of poor performance and of being unable to sell. Major players such as Norwich Union and Friends Provident have locked investors in with long notice periods.
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The idea of investing in direct property via unit trusts was that it represented a non-correlation with shares. However, these unit trusts have proved illiquid with a limited market for selling their assets when investors cash in their units.

Life companies will struggle with platforms - Skandia.

Money Marketing cites Skandia UK chief executive Brett Williams, who says that life companies will struggle with platforms. For instance, Williams believes that companies such as Standard Life will find it hard to achieve the right scale.
The Skandia UK chief executive comments there is fierce competition in the
market as shown by Friend's Provident backing down from its launch and by problems faced by Norwich Union's Lifetime.

Friends Provident is keeping Sesame after review.

Money Marketing reports that British insurance group Friends Provident, originally founded by Quakers, has decided to keep financial adviser network Sesame after a wide-ranging review. In May 2007 Friends acquired the firm for £75m. However, the group has decided to sell fellow financial adviser Pantheon, which concentrates on the high net worth market. Pantheon was bought for £33m.