SALISBURY-BASED insurance and investment company Friends Provident has dealt a double blow to savers and policy holders by announcing a further cut in bonus rates and warned future dividends were in doubt.
The company, which floated in 2002 and has 1.6m with-profits policy holders, became the latest life insurer to announce bonus cuts.
FP has given investors a final dividend of 4.8p per share, making a total for 2002 of 7.25p, up 3.6 per cent on the previous year.
But it warned that a significant rise in share prices would be needed for divided growth to exceed inflation.
It also said that further reductions in bonus rates were likely unless there was a strong recovery in equity markets.
Conventional endowments and pension plans have also been hit, with bonus rates on both sum-assured and attaching bonuses cut to 0.5 per cent.
FP's operating profits slipped to £305m, compared with £321m in 2001, but this included a £56m charge for annuitant mortality which means having to pay out more because people buying annuities are living longer.
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