Fondul Proprietatea Share News (FP.)

Friends Provident has finally succumbed to the overtures of Clive Cowdery's consolidation vehicle Resolution, but investors are already trying to guess who the insurance guru will target next. Although it took several attempts to nail the £1.86bn deal with Britain's sixth-largest life group, the feeling is that the next brick in Clive Cowdery's insurance empire will fit in a little easier. The former insurance salesman has already outlined his ambition to get three acquisitions worth as much as £5bn under his belt within 18 months. His project could only last a few years, after which value will be returned to shareholders. Prudential, valued at £12bn, Aviva £10bn, Standard Life £4.2bn and Legal & General £3.7bn are too big and expensive, even for Cowdery's deep pockets, but their UK businesses might not be. European players Zurich and AXA may also be approached. Other targets have been identified and are thought to include Scottish Widows, the Edinburgh-based life assurance arm of Lloyds Banking Group. Clerical Medical, another member of the Lloyds stable, could also have interested 46-year-old Cowdery. Lloyds may bite off Cowdery's hand should an offer come in for one or both businesses. The part-nationalised lender is understood to be mulling a £15bn cash call to reduce the costs of signing up to the government's toxic asset protection scheme (APS). Resolution, set up late last year following a £650m fundraising, aims to make money by snapping up smaller European insurance companies, squeezing cost and outsourcing synergies and within asset management activities. Shareholders hope that the Cowdery magic will work again this time round. He made a £150m fortune selling his previous buyout vehicle, also named Resolution, for £5bn in 2007, having merged a number of life insurance funds closed to new business, or zombie funds, over the previous three years. Even Friends, before it agreed to give up its 177 years of independence, admitted that the overcrowded life insurance sector had to consolidate, almost accepting the inevitable. Cowdery will definitely come knocking, but whose door will it be next?