Resolution to float as Tiner becomes CEO
Acquisitions vehicle appoints new board members and gears up for spending spree
Clive Cowdery’s buyout firm Resolution yesterday announced plans to raise £1bn through an initial public offering in November, as it prepares for a series of acquisitions of financial services companies in need of restructuring.
Cowdery has pulled off a major coup by landing John Tiner, former head of the Financial Services Authority, as the company’s chief executive officer. Phil Hodkinson, former HBOS finance director, will also join the Resolution board as an executive director.
The company, which was rumoured to be eyeing a bid for insurer Friends Provident last week, said it is looking at buying assets in banking, life insurance, asset management, reinsurance and general insurance.
In a conference call, insurance entrepreneur Cowdery said Resolution would be “a vehicle in which the current owners of financial services companies can deploy capital to restructure those financial services companies.”
Cowdery, 45, said the firm, which is being advised by Lazard, would eventually seek to raise more than £5bn to fund acquisitions of the assets of “large, complex financial groups where investors are not being rewarded for the risks.”
And he said large firms such as Prudential, Standard Life and Royal London Asset Management had discussed investing in Resolution’s offering.
Resolution, said Cowdery, could add value to companies through consolidation, as he has done in the life insurance sector, and by working with existing management to restructure companies.