Resolution plc was a UK insurance company headquartered in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

. It was listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

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 the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...

but was acquired by the

Pearl Group Phoenix Group Holdings 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 The Pearl Loan Company an ...

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 Demutualisation, demutualise, doing so in July 1989. The ba ...

, 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 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 Kingdom, with an overall ma ...

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 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

, a critic of the proposed merger with Friends Provident, had undergone talks with

Swiss Re Swiss Re Ltd is a Swiss reinsurance company founded in 1863 and headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. It is one of the world's largest reinsurers, as measured by gross premiums written. Swiss Re operates through around 80 offices in 29 countri ...

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 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, 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 wo ...

, 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, 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 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. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational financial services, finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is List of largest banks in the United States, the largest ba ...

, KKR,

Nippon Life Insurance Company , also known as or is the largest Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea ...

Temasek Holdings Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited ( ) is a Singaporean State ownership, state-owned multinational investment firm. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek has a net portfolio of US$288 billion (S$389 billion) as of 2024. Headquartered at Orchard ...

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 * Bradford Insurance Company * Royal & Sun Alliance Linked Insurances * Alba Life, 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 * Britannic Retirement Solutions * Britannic Unit Linked Assurance * Century Group * Century Life * Phoenix Life & Pensions * 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