Friends Provident reassures investors
British life insurer Friends Provident PLC sought to reassure investors Tuesday that it has enough spare capital to soak up potential losses, even though it unveiled an 11 percent decline in 2008 sales as a result of the economic slowdown and the financial crisis.
British insurance and pensions provider Friends Provident PLC said Monday that it had rejected a 1.7 billion pound takeover offer from buyout company Resolution Ltd. Friends Provident said the proposed offer of 0.8 new Resolution shares for every Friends Provident share was ``wholly inadequate.''