Cowdery to clinch deal for Friends
CLIVE Cowdery, founder of buyout vehicle Resolution, expects to be toasting a major victory tomorrow when the board of insurer Friends Provident finally supports his takeover offer.
Cowdery has had to raise his price to 0.9 new Resolution shares in return for each Friends share acquired, after weeks of wrangling with the board of his target.
Resolution shares were worth 88.25p at the market close on Friday, valuing the offer at £1.86bn – a significant premium to the insurer’s market value of £1.64bn before the bid was launched.
Cowdery has also made more concessions on Resolution’s structure, which was labelled “inappropriate” by Friends, and in addition to his offer he has added a cash sweetener of around £300m.
The Friends board had suggested Resolution’s bosses, which also include former FSA head John Tiner, would be plundering too much value from the shareholders under the earlier structure.
Cowdery is desperate to get the board’s blessing for the deal, to prevent an exodus of Friends’ top staff.