Lloyds CEO Antonio Horta-Osorio felt he had no choice but to cancel a £109bn investment contract with Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) after talks to merge Lloyds' Scottish Widows subsidiary with SLA's pensions and assurance business broke down late last year, according to reports at the weekend.
In a stock exchange announcement last week, Lloyds said it had given Standard Life Aberdeen a 12-month notice period for the termination of current arrangements, highlighting the Scottish Widows assets were now being run by "a material competitor" following the merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen last August. However, both The Sunday Times and Sky News cited sources who said at the heart of the row is the breakdown of talks between the Edinburgh-based rivals concerning a £6bn mega-merger of their life insurance arms. Discussions started last June but broke down in mid-December over a...
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