Flowers set to bid for Friends

LONDON (Reuters) - Private equity group JC Flowers is gearing up to launch a 3.5 billion pound offer for life insurer Friends Provident FP.L which could come as early as next week, the Sunday Express reported.

The private equity group is said to be waiting for Friends to unveiled its annual results on Tuesday before showing its hand, the paper added.

In January, Flowers indicated that it could pay 175 pence a share for the firm to value Friends at just over 4 billion pounds. However, the group's share price has slipped since then and Flowers is currently prepared to pay between 150 and 160p.

Friends and Flowers were unavailable for comment.

Friends is expected to take 440 million pounds of charges, virtually wiping out its 2007 profit to leave only 20 million pounds.