Oldest firm consigned to history after takeover

IT was founded to provide life insurance for teetotallers and had many clients on board the Titanic when it sank.

Yesterday, Britain’s oldest surviving registered company disappeared after being bought over by Scotland’s largest financial mutual.

Financial services company Scottish Friendly has now doubled in size after snapping up Marine & General Mutual.

M&GM – which had the company registration number 00000006 – was founded as the UK Temperance and General Provident Association and offered sailors who abstained from alcohol lower insurance on the grounds they were likely to live longer.

Now M&GM is no more after the takeover by Glasgow- based Scottish Friendly.

The deal will double the assets under management at Scottish Friendly to around £2billion.

Chief executive Fiona McBain said: ‘The takeover will give us additional economies of scale that can drive further efficiencies and increased value to all of our policyholders.’

Scottish Friendly employs around 90 staff. It was founded in 1862 as the City of Glasgow Friendly Society and changed its name in 1992 when it took over Scottish Friendly Assurance.

Its largest acquisition to date was its takeover of Scottish Legal Life in October 2007, which added more than 500,000 policies and £170million of assets.