Resolution's announcement that it is returning cash to shareholders isn't quite an admission of defeat. It has done roughly what it said it was going to, allowing for some shifts of approach along the way, and some dimming of its ambitions... more
Resolution's £2.75 billion takeover of the UK life insurance arm of Axa is facing opposition from some in the City, because the directors are not taking up their share of the fundraising exercise that is paying for the deal... more
What's next on Resolution’s shopping list? The whisper in the City today was that Clive Cowdery may have turned his eyes to the Continent and away from Legal & General for his buyout vehicle’s next insurance acquisition... more
When I visited the office of Barclays chairman Marcus Agius recently, he proudly showed me a corridor, the walls of which were covered with portraits of the bank’s founders. Quakers.
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Vedanta Resources claimed first place on the Footsie winners' board as Morgan Stanley says the miner's shares could be worth a staggering £68 - even if metal prices hardly rise from their current levels... more
Around 700,000 small investors in Friends Provident were today offered much less than half what the shares were worth at flotation eight years ago to sell their holding to insurance tycoon Clive Cowdery ... more
Legal & General boss Tim Breedon today cast doubt on the wisdom of takeovers in the insurance sector, calling into question the strategy of Clive Cowdery’s Resolution ... more
Life assurer Friends Provident today slammed the door on Resolution boss Clive Cowdery and said discussions about a possible tie-up were well and truly over... more
Friends shareholders were told today that Resolution’s takeover plan would pay them a minimum £1500 cash sweetener and preserve their dividend
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Clive Cowdery, the zombie fund insurance guru who pocketed £150 million by selling Resolution Life to arch-rival Pearl in 2007, has been cleared of wrongdoing following an investigation by the Financial Services Authority ... more
It is now two months since Resolution shook even the most jaundiced City investors with its announcement that the Financial Services Authority had decided to look again at the year-old deal that saw its previous business of closed life assurance funds being acquired (after a prolonged battle) by Hugh Osmond’s Pearl Group ... more
Clive Cowdery, the “zombie fund” insurance guru who made £150 million by selling Resolution Life to Pearl last year, is under investigation by the Financial Services Authority... more
Prudential shares are back in demand, rising 11½p to 296½p today amid mounting speculation its UK insurance business could be the first target of entrepreneur Clive Cowdery's investment vehicle Resolution... more
Insurance: A vulture fund set up to prey on weak insurers and fund managers has revealed it has raised £600 million from investors keen to begin the hunt... more
Finance: Clive Cowdery has announced he will float his financial services restructuring firm Resolution on the stock market this year, raising at least £1billion to fund new takeovers and deals... more
Clive Cowdery, the Resolution boss who last week walked away from his attempted bailout deal for Bradford & Bingley, could still be called upon by shareholders to take over the running of the bank... more
Vladimir Putin is no slouch. So when he says that he advised BP and its Russian billionaire partners not to set up a 50-50 joint venture, you have to think he is on to something... more
PROFILE Maverick financier Clive Cowdery wants the troubles of Britain's second-tier lenders to be the catalyst for a new financial heavyweight. He's been here before... more
Texas Pacific, the US private-equity firm injecting £179 million into Bradford & Bingley, said it sees the deal as part of a wider bid to consolidate smaller UK and European banks... more
Would you buy a used life policy, or even a new one, from this lot? The mugs at the top of our life assurance companies appear to have hardly a clue what they're doing... more
Tonight:
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