Clive Cowdery, the colourful chairman of Resolution, today put his entire stake in the closed-life "zombie" funds group up for sale for about £145 million. He is preparing to raise funds to back a new financial services venture.

Mr Cowdery, who founded Resolution four years ago with a loan of only £500,000, is planning to end his association with the firm ahead of its sale to Pearl Assurance, scheduled to complete in February.

He is using Citigroup as a broker to carry out a private placement of his 20,548,532 shares, representing a stake in Resolution of about 3 per cent.

The placement is expected at about 709p.

The former insurance broker transformed Resolution into a FTSE 100 giant through a series of mergers before eventually succumbing to a predator itself.

Pearl, a rival closed-life specialist run by the former Pizza Express entrepreneur Hugh Osmond, won Resolution last month after a fierce £5 billion tussle involving Friends Provident and Standard Life.

Mr Osmond's firm broke up agreed deals with both life and pensions providers with a 720p-a-share all-cash bid for Resolution, and by buying a blocking stake of almost 25 per cent.

Shares are trading at a discount to the agreed bid price because the deal is not scheduled to complete for about two months.

The bid battle was so fierce that it has prompted an investigation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) amid suggestions that leaks to certain newspapers helped to drive down Resolution's share price.

In an unprecedented move, it is understood that the FSA has asked all three insurers to investigate the circumstances surrounding potential media leaks.

It is the first time the regulator has asked the companies involved to investigate their practices rather than carrrying out an inquiry itself.

It is expected that the three firms will update the regulator early next year.

Mr Cowdery has earmarked about £20 million of proceeds from the share sale for a new charity, the Resolution Trust.

This has been set up to ensure continued funding for the Resolution Foundation, Mr Cowdery's high-profile research and policy organisation aimed at improving financial literacy among disempowered communities.

The foundation also carries out research on the economic experiences of people who earn low wages.

Mr Cowdery is likely to use the vast majority of the remaining funds raised to plough into his secretive new venture.

Mr Cowdery has declined o discuss his new project, said to be at the "highly developed" stage, until the deal with Pearl competes.

It is unlikely to compete with Pearl to buy up closed-life insurance funds, but is thought to involve a much more mainstream financial services venture.

Resolution lost 1.5p to 707.5p.

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