Resolution, Clive Cowdery's reinvented investment vehicle, revealed that it had succesfully raised £600 million from investors in one of the UK’s few major flotations this year.

Resolution said it had placed 660 million ordinary shares at a price of £1 per share.

It also said that Citigroup, the US investment bank, had been granted an over-allotment option of 60 million of the shares, exercisable by the end of this month, which means Resolution could raise up to £660 million.

Full trading in the shares is set to start on the London Stock Exchange on December 10, 2008.

Standard Life, Legal & General, M&G, Royal London Asset Management and Insight Investments are all believed to have placed orders for shares in Resolution.

They were among the key backers of Mr Cowdery's original Resolution, which produced large profits for its investors buying and merging closed-life "zombie" funds.

Mr Cowdery, a former insurance salesman, who set up Resolution with just £500,000 of his own money, sold the business late last year for £5 billion in a high-profile bidding war.

It was eventually won by Pearl Assurance, a rival controlled by Hugh Osmond, the entrepreneur.

Institutions appear to have backed Mr Cowdery in the light of his reputation, despite initial questions being raised about the dual structure of the Resolution companies, with one headquartered in Guernsey for tax-efficient reasons.

Mr Cowdery first unveiled his float plans last month, saying that he aimed to raise the cash as a platform for aquisitions in the life assurance and asset management sectors.

The group will target public and private companies in the UK and continental Europe, including Gemany. Mr Cowdery has said Resolution will look for the natural long-term owners of companies.

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