It didn’t feature, formally, in Friends Provident’s messy year-end figures, but the embattled British insurer really would like buyout group JC Flowers to come clean on whether or not it intends to launch a bid. Said chairman Adrian Montague, who is looking increasingly lonely in the Friends boardroom:
We would be prepared to discuss a formal approach if one was made to us. All I can say is we have not had a formal approach from Flowers…The point is coming when the uncertainty is not good for anybody, so we would like to call on Flowers to make (its) position clear.
You can see his point. It is now 10 months since it was first disclosed here that Flowers had its eye on Friends, having explored a joint bid with Standard Life.
But you can also see Flowers’ desire to take its time. In May last year Flowers was considering paying as much as 270p a share. On Tuesday, after a kitchen-sinking of the Friends accounts, the shares were trading at 120p, up 1.4p.