The future of fund manager F&C is likely to remain uncertain until at least the autumn, majority shareholder Friends Provident revealed yesterday after it disclosed it is continuing talks about the sale of its stake to several organisations.
The future of fund manager F&C is likely to remain uncertain until at least the autumn, majority shareholder Friends Provident revealed yesterday after it disclosed it is continuing talks about the sale of its stake to several organisations.
F&C, which has offices in Edinburgh and London as well as the Netherlands, is to be offloaded as 52% shareholder Friends follows up on a pledge in January to focus on its core businesses.
Friends' executive chairman Adrian Montague, who is currently also steering British Energy through its own sale, told his company's annual general meeting: "The F&C board, working in close conjunction with us, is in discussions with a limited range of buyers. They are at an early stage."
He added that a resolution to the situation could not be expected before the third or fourth quarter of the year.
The sale is part of the fall-out from its failed merger with rival insurer Resolution last year.
He said that the sale of financial adviser Pantheon was due in a "few weeks" with an update on its international insurance unit Lombard unlikely before the company posts its interim results in August.
Trevor Matthews, who headed Standard Life's core UK business until resigning in January, is due to become Friends' chief executive in late July or early August.
