Aviva agrees £5.6bn Friends Life takeover

Shareholders in Friends Life are being offered 394p per share - roughly 8% more than what they are currently worth - if they support the deal. They would own about 26% of the enlarged group. Following the acquisition, Andy Briggs, the current group chief executive of Friends Life, will become chief executive of Aviva UK Life and will join the board of Aviva as an executive director. Sir Malcolm Williamson, the current chairman of Friends Life, will join the board of Aviva as senior independent director, with a further as yet unnamed non-executive director of Friends Life joining th...