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Clive Cowdery, the zombie fund insurance tycoon who now runs Resolution, had his bid for insurer giant Friends Provident rejected.
The offer - thought to be part of Cowdery's aim to buy several life insurers over the next 18 months, merging them to cut costs - was turned down by the Friends Provident board.
Resolution issued a statement stating that it is “considering a possible offer for the entire issued and to-be-issued share capital of Friends Provident, in connection with this consolidation strategy and has approached the Friends Provident board.”
It said that the proposal “was not considered to be acceptable” by the board of Friends Provident, but that it had received constructive feedback from Friends Provident and is “considering its response.”
Cowdery's attempt to splash out £4.2 billion in July 2007 through his previous buyout vehicle, also named Resolution, was quashed when the firm was bought by Hugh Osmond's Pearl Group for £5 billion in May 2008.
