Aviva is in talks to buy Friends Life in a £5.6bn takeover that marks the life assurance industry’s first major reaction to the pension reforms unveiled by chancellor George Osborne in the spring. The new company will be the UK’s biggest insurance and savings company and will start life with 16 million customers.
The all-share bid – announced after the stock market closed – would be pitched at 399p per Friends Life share, 15% above yesterday’s closing price of 347p. Agreement is not yet final, but talks are advanced. If it happens, the takeover will be the biggest in the industry since Aviva was formed a decade and a half ago from the merger of Norwich Union and CGU, which was itself the product of the combination of Commercial Union and General Accident.
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Source Network Front | The Guardian http://ift.tt/11LnD55
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