Mumbai: British insurance group Pearl has made a 4.94 billion pound ($10.1 billion) cash offer for rival Resolution, in a move to thwart a 4.9 billion pound Standard offer agreed by Resolution''s board just hours before.

Pearl Group, run by Hugh Osmond, a long-time rival of Resolution chairman Clive Cowdery, has also increased its stake in Resolution to 24.2 per cent.

Pearl said it was now offering 720 pence a share in cash against Standard Life''s cash-and-shares bid worth 715 pence and up 4.2 per cent from its last proposal.

The Resolution board had turned down Pearls'' two previous bid proposals.

Resolution shares, meanwhile, climbed as much as 3 per cent to 730 pence on speculation the battle had further to run.

Resolution, which specialises in life insurance funds closed to new business, has been a takeover target since it announced an 8.7 billion-pound merger with Friends Provident in July. (See: British insurers Friends Provident and Resolution to merge) That merger, however, collapsed when Resolution gave its backing to the Standard Life offer of 517 pence in cash and 0.715 new shares for each Resolution share.

Pearl raised its bid, on speculation Standard Life''s offer would fail. Ironically, a rise in Resolution''s share prices pushed the value of Standard Life''s cash-and-shares bid above Pearl''s - to about 722 pence a share.

Buying Resolution will transform Standard Life into one of the UK''s leading life and pensions companies with about seven million UK customers, and create an asset management business with about £191 billion of funds under management.

Standard noted that it expected to make a total of £71 million in annual savings through the deal by 2010.