Hugh and Clive meet at last

HUGH OSMOND and Clive Cowdrey finally met on Friday. The former's Pearl Group has its sights set on buying Resolution, chaired by the latter, and has built a near 17 per cent stake in the company. But the meeting, held at Resolution's offices to discuss its offer for Friends Provident, nearly did-n't happen.

Mr Cowdrey is determined to push through the deal for Provident, despite the opposition of Mr Osmond, and bankers close to the talks say that it took a lot of persuading to get him to meet his opponent. "Let's just say it took some calm heads to get Clive to meet with what is after all his biggest shareholder."

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