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Friends Provident
Friends Provident
Friends Provident plc
Type Founded Headquarters Key people
Public (LSE: FP.) 1832 London, England, UK Adrian Montague (Chairman), Trevor Matthews, (Group Chief Executive) Insurance, Inheritance tax products, Investment Management Pensions £949 million (2008) £(871) million (2008) £(666) million (2008) www.fp.com
Products
Revenue Operating income Net income Website
Friends Provident (LSE: FP.) is an organisation offering life assurance in the United Kingdom. It was founded as a mutual Friendly Society for Quakers, although demutualised in 2001 and is now a publicly listed company, no longer linked with the Religious Society of Friends. The head office is now located at 100 Wood Street in London. The registered office is at Pixham End, Dorking in Surrey. It is a member of the Association of British Insurers and is regulated by the Financial Services Authority. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Policies and membership of the Friends Provident Institution was only available to Quakers until 1915. Until 1983, a minimum of five members of the Board of Directors of Friends Provident had to be Quakers. Today, Friends Provident does not have any formal link with the Religious Society of Friends. In 1986 it merged with UK Provident.[3] In 1992 it became a foundation partner in the Eureko Alliance in association with AVCB (The Netherlands), Topdanmark (Denmark) and Wasa (Sweden). As part of this alliance, Friends Provident passed all of its then non UK subsidiaries (primarily in Australia and Canada) into Eureko.[4] In 1993 it acquired the UK operations of National Mutual of Australia and in 1998 it acquired London & Manchester Assurance.[3] In July 2001 it went through a process of demutualisation and was first listed on the London Stock Exchange.[5] On January 21, 2008 JC Flowers made a bid of £4bn (175p per share) as an informal offer for the company[6].
Operations
The UK Life and Pensions business markets a range of life protection, income protection, pensions and investment products for individual customers and corporate clients throughout the UK.[7] The International Life and Pensions business operates throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and incorporates the Luxemburg based company Lombard International who specialise in providing life assurance based estate planning solutions.[7] The Asset Management business - F&C Asset Management plc - manages funds and markets a range of investment products both to personal and institutional customers.[8]
History
The Company was founded by Samuel Tuke and Joseph Rowntree, both Quakers, in 1832 in Bradford as the Friends Provident Institution.[1], as a friendly society for members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). In 1854 it became a mutual life assurance company. In 1918 it acquired Century Insurance and in 1926 it bought Liverpool Marine & General Insurance.[2]
Ethical stance
Friends Provident prides itself on its ethical stance. It was the first investment house to offer a fully ethical investment fund called the Stewardship fund [9].
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Friends Provident
Members of the Friends Provident Group
• Friends Provident Life and Pension Limited - Provides life, pension and investment services within the UK • Friends Provident Life Assurance Limited Provides life and investment services worldwide under English and Guernsey law. • Friends Provident International Limited Formerly Royal and Sun Alliance International but was taken over in 2003. Provides life and investment services worldwide and operates under the law of the Isle of Man. • F&C Asset Management plc (currently in the process of a de-merger) - Provides asset management services for retail and institutional investors including investment management of "in-house" Friends Provident life and pension funds. • Lombard International Insurance S.A. Acquired in 2005, providers of high-end Investment and life cover. Inventors and developers of the privatbancassurance concept. Lombard is based in Luxembourg and deals globally.
Sports sponsorships
Friends Provident has signed a three year deal to sponsor the domestic one-day cricket competition, The Friends Provident Trophy.[10] Friends Provident sponsored Southampton F.C. and help finance the building of St Mary’s Stadium, until 2006.[11]
External links
• Official UK site • Official Socially Responsible Investment site • Lombard’s official site • F & C official site • International site • Yahoo profile • Cricket Micro site
References
[1] Milligan’s Biographical dictionary of British Quakers in commerce and industry page 581. This refers to a history of the company: Friends for life by D. Tregonning and H. Cockrell (1982) [2] Friends Provident History 1918-1945 [3] ^ Friends Provident History 1980-1999 [4] Four European Insurers form Eureko [5] Friends Provident backs IPO plan [6] JC Flowers in £4bn bid for troubled Friends Provident, The Times, January 21, 2008 [7] ^ Friends Provident Protection [8] Friends Provident Funds [9] Charities Aid Foundation article on the Stewardship Fund. [10] Professional Cricketers Association [11] Flybe sponsors Southampton
Offices
Friends Provident has large offices in a number of locations including Manchester (currently in the process of being phased out, with office closure due in December 2009), Clyst St. Mary in Exeter and Dorking, and is the second largest employer in Salisbury. There are also a few smaller area offices such as those in Bristol and Preston. Internationally Friends Provident has offices in Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai, where it’s offshore processing team is based.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends_Provident" Categories: Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, Companies established in 1832, Insurance companies of the United Kingdom, Companies based in London, Former mutual insurance companies This page was last modified on 8 May 2009, at 21:21 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) taxdeductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
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