JC Flowers, the US private equity investor, is seeking a meeting with Friends Provident, after Sir Adrian Montague, chairman of the embattled UK life assurer, demanded to know whether it was going to be the subject of a takeover bid or not.

The provocation came as Friends, which has recruited Trevor Matthews from Standard Life to be its new chief executive, announced the departure of Jim Smart, its finance director, and disclosed a worse than expected fall in 2007 profits.