Could "Zombie" fund king Clive Cowdery, who made his fortune from the £5 billion ($8.9 billion) sale earlier this year of closed life insurance fund specialist Resolution plc to Pearl Group Ltd., return to haunt Friends Provident plc? Cowdery, the former head of General Electric Co.'s European insurance arm, sent Friends Provident into a tailspin last year when he scrapped a planned £8 billion merger in favor of an ultimately unsuccessful bid by Standard Life plc, and before going on to sell Resolution to Hugh Osmond's Pearl. Since then Friends' earnings and share price have slumped, planned asset sales have hit hurdles, and the Dorking, England, group's April rejection of a 150 pence per share, or £3.5 billion, approach by JC Flowers & Co. LLC looks hubristic.
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Cowdery, meanwhile, has established a new vehicle, Resolution Ltd., to invest in ailing financial services companies.The Financial Times claimed Thursday that Cowdery is studying a breakup or takeover of Friends. However, the report baffled those in the know.
Cowdery has only just returned to his desk after he abandoned a bid for a slice of mortgage lender Bradford & Bingley plc in June. He has not yet set about raising external funds for his new vehicle and is seen unlikely to engage in M&A until year's end at the earliest. Friends investors, ever hopeful of good news, took heart from the FT article, however. By midafternoon they had marked the shares up 2.9 pence to 102.10 pence, a level which may yet lure JC Flowers back to the fray if it not Cowdery himself. - Laura Board
