May 24 (Reuters) - Britain's FTSE 100 index is

seen opening lower on Friday, with futures down 0.98%

* ABRDN ( SLFPF ): British fund manager abrdn said CEO

Stephen Bird will step down after four years in the role, and

finance chief Jason Windsor will take the helm on an interim

basis.

* COVENTRY BUILDING SOCIETY: Britain's Coventry Building

Society will acquire Co-operative Bank for 780 million pounds

($989.82 million) in cash, the two companies said in a joint

statement on Friday.

* JOHN WOOD GROUP: British oilfield services and

engineering firm John Wood Group rejected a third buyout

proposal from Dubai-based company Sidara, as the unsolicited

offer continued to "significantly undervalue" the group.

* OFGEM: Most British household energy bills will fall from

July after regulator Ofgem cut its domestic price cap by 7%

largely due to a fall in wholesale energy prices.

* HARGREAVES LANSDOWN: Peter Hargreaves, the biggest

shareholder in UK retail investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown

, is open to taking the company private and has held

talks with investors recently about a transaction, three people

familiar with the matter told Reuters.

* GSK: A jury in Chicago rejected an Illinois woman's claim

that the now discontinued heartburn drug from GSK and

Boehringer Ingelheim, Zantac caused her colon cancer, in the

first trial out of thousands of lawsuits making similar

allegations.

* METALS: Copper treads water as investors reassess recent

rally

* GOLD: Gold prices hit a two-week low, set for their

biggest weekly loss in over five months

* OIL: Oil steady as investors weigh U.S. rate fears, firmer

seasonal demand

* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please

click on:

TODAY'S UK PAPERS

> Financial Times

> Other business headlines

($1 = 0.7880 pounds)

(Reporting by Echha Jain in Bengaluru)