Hugh Osmond, the chief executive of Pearl Assurance, has finally won the £5 billion battle for Resolution, the closed-fund insurer.

Resolution’s board, headed by Clive Cowdery, conceded yesterday that it could not raise the price any further and recommended Mr Osmond’s offer at 720p a share.

The recommendation was Resolution’s third in recent months after what at one stage became a bidding frenzy for the FTSE 100 insurer.

Mr Cowdery and the rest of the board will now leave the business but under the terms of the deal, Mr Cowdery will retain the Resolution brand to enable him to establish a new business. He has promised not to use the brand to compete in the closed life fund sector.

Resolution had hoped to create a merger with Friends Provident to form Friends Financial. However, this plan was scuppered by rival bids from Standard Life and Pearl.

Mr Cowdery then recommended the Standard Life merger, only to see it trumped by Pearl, after it had built up a shareholding of 25.93 per cent in Resolution.

Last Sunday Standard Life, which had teamed up with Swiss Re, the world’s largest reinsurer, pulled out of the race after the value of its cash-and-shares deal tumbled. A collapse in Standard Life’s share price pulled down the value of its bid from 716p a share to an uncompetitive 691p for each Resolution share.

Resolution shareholders can elect to receive either cash or a new bond in Pearl’s subsidiary Impala – the shell company with which it is implementing the transaction - paying out six-month sterling Libor less 1 per cent.

The deal will see Royal London purchase Resolution’s Scottish Provident business both in the UK and internationally. Resolution’s shares were unchanged at 704½p.

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