WORLD BUSINESS BRIEFING | EUROPE; Britain: Merger To Create Insurer With 9.5. Million Clients
British insurer Resolution will buy rival Friends Provident in all-stock deal that would create one of Britain’s largest life insurers; new company, Friends Financial Group, will be valued at 8.6 billion pounds ($17.7 billion), with 9.5 million customers and assets of 165 million pounds ($340 billion); Resolution’s chairman Clive Cowdery will be chairman of new company