In January, the group announced a restructure of the company in a bid to deliver cost savings of at least £40m a year by the end of 2009 and relieve it of its non-core assets, which include Pantheon, Lombard and its 52 per cent stake in F&C Asset Management.
Friends Provident has already shelved the sale of Pantheon due to market conditions and chief executive Ben Gunn today (7 August) confirmed that the credit crunch was also slowing up the sale of the other businesses.
"We won’t set an artificial timetable for when the businesses should be sold by. Market conditions may make this take longer," Gunn said.
According to Gunn, it was never anticipated that the non-core assets would be sold before the first half of 2008, but he insisted that there is "continued interest" in Lombard and its F&C stake. However, he declined to name the possible suitors.
Yesterday F&C Asset Management reported a 56.9 per cent drop in profits, however, Gunn does not believe this will deter buyers.
"People in the markets will have expected it," he said.
As a result of the restructure, 600 jobs are expected to be shed by the end of 2009, with around 350 redundancies already completed.
However, Gunn said this number could be higher or lower.
He added: "Who knows what 2009 or 2010 will bring".
Earlier today, the life company said its underlying profit on a European embedded value basis (EEV) fell to £211m in the first half of 2008 compared with £264m in the first half of 2007. (See story.)
