Resolution plc was a UK insurance company headquartered in the City of London. It was listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

and was once a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...

but was acquired by the Pearl Group in May 2008.

History

Early history

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 The Abbey National Building Society was formed in 1944 by the merger of the Abbey Road and the National building societies. It was the first building society in the United Kingdom to demutualise, doing so in July 1989. The bank expanded thro ...

, a transaction of £3.6 billion that brought entry into the FTSE 100.Company history
/ref> On 30 May 2007 Resolution announced a strategic partnership with

Capita Capita plc, commonly known as Capita, is an international business process outsourcing and professional services company headquartered in London. It is the largest business process outsourcing and professional services company in the United ...

which will result in the transfer of approximately two thousand staff in Customer Services and IT and phased outsourcing of back-office customer services to India.

Takeover by Pearl Group

On 25 July 2007 Resolution agreed a merger with

Friends Provident Friends’ Provident Insurance was a banking institution founded in 1832 to serve the needs of the Society of Friends (Quakers). Based in Bradford, it concentrated on sickness and annuity policies until its life fund acquired Century Insurance ...

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 Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd,
Swiss Re. Retrieved on 18 January 2011. "Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd ("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 Standard Life is a life assurance, pensions and long-terms savings company in the UK which is owned by Phoenix Group. History 1825–2010 The Standard Life Assurance Company was established in 1825 and was reincorporated as a mutual assurance ...

and Swiss Re also entered the bidding for Resolution, and for a brief period on 26 October 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 Hugh Edward Mark Osmond (born March 1962) is an entrepreneur and businessman and was the founder of Punch Taverns, one of the UK's largest chains of public houses. Early life Hugh Edward Mark Osmond was born in March 1962, the son of a doctor, a ...

, 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. At the

extraordinary general meeting An extraordinary general meeting, commonly abbreviated as EGM, is a meeting of members of an organisation, shareholders of a company, or employees of an official body that occurs at an irregular time.' The term is usually used where the group wou ...

, held on 8 January 2008, the shareholders overwhelmingly agreed to the merger. Having been approved by the

Financial Services Authority The Financial Services Authority (FSA) was a quasi-judicial body accountable for the regulation of the financial services industry in the United Kingdom between 2001 and 2013. It was founded as the Securities and Investments Board (SIB) in 1985 ...

in mid-April 2008, the acquisition was completed on 1 May 2008. The ''Scottish Provident'' and ''Scottish Provident International'' brands and various in-force blocks of policies were taken over by the

Royal London Group The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Limited, along with its subsidiaries, is the largest mutual insurer in the United Kingdom, with Group funds under management of over £150 billion. Group businesses provide around nine million polici ...

, with the rest going to Pearl. At this time, Pearl agreed to allow Clive Cowdery to use the Resolution brand.

Relaunch as an investment vehicle

Resolution was relaunched by

Clive Cowdery Sir Clive Cowdery (born 26 May 1963) is an English businessman and philanthropist who made a personal fortune in the insurance industry, founding two FTSE100 insurers and a third insurer which has deployed circa $5bn in capital with $90bn in as ...

as an investment acquisition vehicle in December 2008. Resolution Life Group Holdings Ltd, which is registered in Bermuda, is the holding company for several global insurance brands, including AMP Life In 2019, investors in the holding company included

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the w ...

, KKR,

Nippon Life Insurance Company , also known as or is the largest Japanese life insurance company by revenue. The company was founded in 1889 as the ''Nippon Life Assurance Co., Inc.'' In structure it is a mutual company. It first paid policyholder dividends in 1898. Over ...

Temasek Holdings Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, or simply Temasek, is a Singaporean state holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek owns and manages a total of US$496.59 billion (S$671 billion) in assets un ...

and a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund. The group resumed talks with Friends Provident in July 2009 but was rejected twice, though Friends Provident eventually agreed to a takeover in August 2009.

Operations

Brands owned by the Group included: *Swiss Life (UK) *Phoenix Assurance Ltd *Bradford Insurance Company Ltd *Royal & Sun Alliance Linked Insurances Ltd *Alba Life Ltd, previously: **Britannia Life **FS Assurance **Crusader Insurance **Life Association of Scotland **Foreman and Staff Mutual Benefit Society *Britannic Asset Management (previously Britannia Asset Management, now Resolution Asset Management) *Britannic Assurance Plc *Britannic Retirement Solutions Ltd *Britannic Unit Linked Assurance Ltd *Century Group Plc *Century Life Plc *Phoenix Life & Pensions Ltd *Allianz Cornhill (life operations) *AMP Life

References

{{Authority control Phoenix Group Financial services companies established in 2004 Insurance companies of the United Kingdom Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Financial services companies based in the City of London Financial services companies disestablished in 2008 es:Resolution