UK life insurer Friends Provident reported a sharp fall in profit for 2007 as it said it is making good progress on its new strategy.

Pre-tax operating profit came in at £16 million, down from £509 million in 2006 and also below the company's guidance of £20 million, issued in January.

The insurer also announced that Jim Smart, its chief financial officer, will be leaving the company in the summer. Despite the slew of bad news, stares were steady at 121p.

Friends Provident announced in January that it will re-focus itself on the life and pensions industry and sell off wealth management unit Lombard and its 52% stake in asset manager F&C Asset Management.

'Swift and efficient implementation of the new strategy is now our focus to ensure that the inherent benefits will emerge as soon as practicable and, as announced, an update on progress can be expected at the time of interim results in August 2008,' the company said in today's statement.

'In the meantime, we can report that a senior team is in place solely to oversee implementation and good progress is already being made.'