6th Dec 2010 11:00
6 December 2010
Resolution Limited ("Company")
2011 Investor Relations Calendar
The Company sets out below its timetable for communication with investors for 2011, during which further updates on its UK Life Project will be provided as follows:
February 2011 UK Life Project - update on value creation plan
Acquisition balance sheet for the AXA UK life acquisition
24 March 2011 2010 full year results
18 May 2011 Annual General Meeting
May 2011 Financial, Market and Operational update for the enlarged Friends Life business - capital (including Solvency II), sustainable cash generation, synergies, distribution and detailed product strategy
1Q 2011 IMS
16 August 2011 2011 Interim Results
15 November 2011 UK Life Project update
Q3 2011 IMS
Enquiries:
Investors/analysts
Neil Wesley, Resolution Operations LLP +44 (0)20 3372 2928
Media
Alex Child-Villiers, Temple Bar Advisory +44 (0) 7795 425580
Notes to editors
About Resolution Limited
The Company's objective is to acquire businesses and provide the public markets with restructuring opportunities in the financial services industry in the UK and Western Europe. The Company will only make acquisitions where it considers them capable, in aggregate over the life of a restructuring project, of generating returns consistent with its target of a mid-teens percentage gross internal rate of return.
The Company has an operating agreement with Resolution Operations LLP ("ROL") and under the agreement ROL provides advisory and other services to the Company. ROL receives an annual fee of 0.5 per cent of the non-cash value of the Company. The Company has also agreed a value share under which the partners and employees of ROL will receive 10 per cent of the added value achieved on a restructuring project above an agreed return. The value share will only be payable in respect of a project once the Company has exited, or partially exited from it, such that all of the equity capital deployed on the project has been repaid together with the associated agreed return.
The partners and employees of ROL have invested £28m in cash in the Company's listed shares.
UK Life Project
At the time of listing, the Company identified the UK life and asset management sectors as being most likely to provide value-creating consolidation and restructuring opportunities in the financial services industry in the near term and accordingly, in 2009, launched its first restructuring project (the "UK Life Project") with the acquisition of Friends Provident Group plc.
In June 2010, the Company announced the acquisition of the majority of AXA's UK life business funded by a pre-emptive rights issue, debt and vendor finance. The acquisition results in an attractive blended average acquisition price (net of external debt) for Friends Provident and the AXA UK life businesses of 68.8 per cent of net MCEV. The AXA UK life acquisition completed in September 2010. In October 2010, the Company announced the acquisition of Bupa Health Assurance Limited for 62 per cent of estimated embedded value, funded from surplus capital held within the life operating businesses of the group.
The Company believes that substantial value exists in the UK Life Project and it and ROL are focused and committed to:
- completing the separation and integration of the acquired businesses;
- delivering cost and capital synergies;
- reducing new business strain;
- improving the returns and payback periods in the chosen product offerings;
- delivering the targeted cash emergence after interest costs at Friends Provident Holdings (UK) plc ("FPH") of at least £400m pa from 2011;
- providing greater clarity on the potential for long term operational cash generation in FPH; and
- optimising the existing portfolio of assets.
The Company expects that returns for shareholders will derive primarily from capital appreciation of its shares and the return of proceeds from disposals.
The Company expects that FPH will be capable of delivering operational cash generation which supports the payment of a sustainable, growing dividend by the time the UK Life Project is completed.
Related Shares:
FLG.L