Friends Gains Admirers

The Sunday Telegraph London (March 27, 2005)

Author: Edited By Grant Ringshaw

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Summary

WHEN Friends Provident (179p) floated in June 2001, the life insurer was a largely UK-focused business facing a major challenge in gaining the scale to compete with larger, better capitalised rivals. Almost four years on, Keith Satchell, the chief executive, trumpets that Friends is a very different business and that he is the most bullish he has been since the float.

So should investors believe him? Friends is now far less dependent on the UK - last year's euros265m acquisition of Lombard, the insurer which sells products to Europe's rich, has opened up new opportunities. Lombard plus Friends' existing international operations should account for 35 per cent of new business this year. Friends has also grown the asset management operations by merging Isis, the listed group in which it held a controlling stake, with Foreign & Colonial to create F&C Asset Management.

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Friends Gains Admirers

Nine days ago Friends unveiled a be...

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