Resolution, the parent company of Friends Provident, said today that Friends Prov is to buy Financial Partners Business AG, its German distribution partner. The price was not disclosed.
Friends Provident has worked exclusively with FpB, which has assets of €9.7m, since 2007 to distribute its products to brokers and financial advisers in Germany.
In a statement, Resolution said Friends Provident had been in talks to acquire FpB during
the course of 2009, and that the Friends Provident Group board had agreed the terms of the deal ahead of Resolution’s acquisition of FP earlier this year.
The purchase will help to secure Friends Provident’s distribution arrangements in the German market, Resolution noted.
Resolution, Clive Cowdery’s Guernsey-based, FTSE 100-listed acquisition vehicle, finally reached agreement to buy Friends Provident in August, two years after attempting to merge it with an earlier incarnation of Resolution. Shares in Resolution rose 1.75% Friday to 84.4p a share.