Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, ABN Amro and HBOS are providing about £700m (€1bn) of debt to finance Hugh Osmond's £1bn purchase of four closed life funds from HHG, the financial services group.

Osmond, best know for owning Pizza Express, has bought Pearl Assurance, NPI, National Provident Life and London Life, forcing the pace of consolidation in the UK's life insurance sector through his investment vehicle Sun Capital and TDR Capital, a private equity fund.