Friends Provident on Thursday said it would dispose of its controlling stake in F&C Asset Management, the UK-listed fund manager, and pull out of its other wealth management businesses as part of a restructuring that would see the life assurer cut costs and rebase its dividend.

The company said its wealth management businesses – F&C, Lombard and Pantheon Financial – were no longer part of a revised strategy to focus on its UK protection and corporate pensions business while giving priority to related international savings, pensions and protection markets.