Friends Life Group Limited was a

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

-incorporated investment vehicle which had the stated intent of forcing consolidation in the British

life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the dea ...

industry. 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 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 marke ...

. It was acquired by

Aviva Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general ...

on 13 April 2015.

History

The firm was founded as Resolution Limited by entrepreneur

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 ...

in 2008 after agreeing a deal to retain the naming rights to Resolution plc, the

zombie fund A zombie fund (more formally known as a closed fund) is a colloquial expression for a with-profits life insurance fund that is closed to new business. It is therefore running off its portfolio of insurance liabilities, but not issuing new policie ...

investor he founded which was sold to

Pearl Group Phoenix Group Holdings plc (formerly Pearl Group plc) is a provider of insurance services based in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History The company was founded in 1857 as ...

that year. The company was established with the intention of completing the

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money ( leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loa ...

and merger of at least three UK life insurance operators by 2012 and

spinning out ''Spinning Out'' is an American drama streaming television series, created by Samantha Stratton, that premiered on Netflix on January 1, 2020. In February 2020, the series was canceled after one season. The series stars Kaya Scodelario as Kat Ba ...

the enlarged company on the stock market. The first of these,

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 ...

, was acquired in November 2009 for £1.86 billion. Upon completion of the deal Resolution, which obtained a listing on the

in December 2008, took the place of Friends Provident in the

. Resolution purchased

Axa Sun Life Axa S.A. (styled as ''AXA'' or GIG in the Middle East) is a French multinational insurance company. The head office is in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. It also provides investment management and other financial services. The Axa ...

Holdings Ltd from

Axa Axa S.A. (styled as ''AXA'' or GIG in the Middle East) is a French multinational insurance company. The head office is in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. It also provides investment management and other financial services. The ...

SA in Autumn 2010. In October 2010 it bought Bupa Health Assurance. In 2011 Resolution merged the UK operations of Friends Provident with the UK life assurance businesses acquired from Axa and Bupa under the name Friends Life. Resolution changed its name to Friends Life Group in May 2014. In December 2014, British insurer

agreed terms for a £5.6 billion all-share takeover of Friends Life. Andy Briggs, current group chief executive of Friends Life, will become CEO of Aviva UK Life, with Mark Wilson continuing as CEO of the enlarged Aviva Group. The takeover was completed on 13 April 2015.

Operations

Friends Life operated from seven countries around the world including: United Kingdom, Germany, Luxembourg, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Isle of Man. Friends Life was the 5th largest life and pensions company ranked by UK market capitalisation. Friends Life were the title sponsors of the Friends Life t20

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

league organised by the

England and Wales Cricket Board The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test and County Cricket Board, ...

, from 2010 to 2013 (as

Friends Provident t20 The T20 Blast, currently named the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (E ...

). Senior management were employed by the London-headquartered

limited liability partnership A limited liability partnership (LLP) is a partnership in which some or all partners (depending on the jurisdiction) have limited liabilities. It therefore can exhibit elements of partnerships and corporations. In an LLP, each partner is not ...

through which the company is effectively run.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Investment companies of the United Kingdom Financial services companies established in 2008 Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Financial services companies disestablished in 2015 2015 mergers and acquisitions