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The story
Founded by Clive Cowdery in 2008.1
The firm was founded as Resolution Limited by entrepreneur Clive Cowdery in 2008 after agreeing a deal to retain the naming rights to Resolution plc, the zombie fund investor he founded which was sold to Pearl Group that year.
The company was established with the intention of completing the leveraged buyout and merger of at least three UK life insurance operators by 2012 and spinning out the enlarged company on the stock market. The first of these, Friends Provident, was acquired in November 2009 for £1.86 billion. Upon completion of the deal Resolution, which obtained a listing on the London Stock Exchange in December 2008, took the place of Friends Provident in the FTSE 100 Index.
Resolution purchased Axa Sun Life Holdings Ltd from Axa SA in Autumn 2010. In October 2010 it bought Bupa Health Assurance.
In 2011 Resolution merged the UK operations of Friends Provident with the UK life assurance businesses acquired from Axa and Bupa under the name Friends Life.
Resolution changed its name to Friends Life Group in May 2014.
In December 2014, British insurer Aviva agreed terms for a £5.6 billion all-share takeover of Friends Life. Andy Briggs, current group chief executive of Friends Life, will become CEO of Aviva UK Life, with Mark Wilson continuing as CEO of the enlarged Aviva Group. The takeover was completed on 13 April 2015.
From Wikipedia’s article on Friends Life Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4