Friends abandons F&C stake sale plan
Friends Provident has given up trying to sell its 52% stake in fund management group F&C.
Who needs Friends?: Friends Provident's offices in London
After a year of on-off sales talks, the last of which ended very recently, Friends is going back to its original idea of demerging the business by handing out F&C shares to its own shareholders.
That is likely to happen by the summer and, according to F&C chief executive Alain Grisay, will remove the uncertainty that has hung over the business for the past year and, he admitted, had an impact on winning new business.
Over that year, F&C's value has dwindled from £900m to about £300m as it has seen asset values across the industry fall through the credit crisis. In the circumstances, Grisay said he was pleased that assets under management declined by just 5% to £98.6bn.
Underlying profits dropped 24% to £38.3m. The dividend is unchanged at 6p.
F&C cut 40 staff last year and another 40 have gone so far this year as the group cuts operating costs by some £13m.
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