O’Shea breathes sigh of relief as late Smith score earns Quins win February 9, 2014 HARLEQUINS director of rugby Conor O’Shea revealed his relief after Sam Smith touched down with three minutes remaining to seal an 11-10 win over London Wasps yesterday. A first-half penalty-try had Wasps in control at The Stoop, but Ben Botica slotted a penalty 10 minutes after the break, setting it up for Smith to cross [...]
City Moves for 27 February 2014 | Who’s switching jobs February 26, 2014 Royal London GroupThe mutual life and pensions company has announced the appointment of Tim Harris as a finance director and member of its board. He joins from Torus, where he is currently group chief finance officer. Harris has previously held senior finance roles at Aviva and PwC. InceThe law firm has appointed Hugh O’Donovan as [...]
What you need to know before the open March 6, 2014 Europe’s set for a higher open this morning as investors await today’s European Central Bank (ECB) rate meeting. Another weather-related miss for US services, and disappointing ADP payroll numbers didn’t appear to dent activity too much yesterday, and concerns over Ukraine have seemingly been put on the back burner for now. Opinion is somewhat divided [...]
Canadian group swoops for F&C with £700m bid January 27, 2014 ONE OF Britain’s oldest investment companies is on the brink of being sold to Canada’s fourth biggest bank in a £700m takeover deal. F&C Asset Management, which runs the 145-year-old Foreign & Colonial Investment Trust, yesterday said the Bank of Montreal had tabled a 120p a share offer for the firm which it was likely [...]
Insurers could demand info on fracking sites February 3, 2014 INSURERS could begin requesting information from homeowners about their proximity to fracking exploration sites if it looks likely that the process could cause damage to property. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) said the industry is monitoring fracking exploration and data around any related disturbances but stressed that there is currently very little evidence to [...]
Exclusive: Axed Ashton: I don’t worry I’ll miss out on World Cup March 6, 2014 ENGLAND wing Chris Ashton insists missing out on next year’s World Cup is not on his mind, despite being overlooked for a fourth Six Nations match in a row this weekend. The 26-year-old has scored 18 tries in 37 Tests for England, but has not featured in Stuart Lancaster’s team since November and could see [...]
Annuity market to collapse by £8bn because of rule switch March 20, 2014 SAVERS fleeing the pension annuity market will cause it to collapse by two-thirds over the next 18 months, analysts predict, as the fallout from the Budget continued to hit markets. Barclays analysts said the annuity market could shrink from £12bn a year to just £4bn by September 2015, due to changes announced in the Budget, [...]
Insurance sector hammered by annuity shock March 19, 2014 LIFE insurers were the biggest losers yesterday after radical plans to give ageing savers instant access to their pension pots sparked a mass insurance sell-off. FTSE 250-listed Just Retirement and Partnership Assurance were the hardest hit, with both losing close to half their market value. Just Retirement closed down 42.4 per cent while Partnership fell [...]
Best of the Brokers for 27 November 2013 November 26, 2013 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com HALFORDS UBS has a “buy” recommendation on the bike and car parts retailer and has raised its price target to 530p from 435p. The broker said that Halfords is beginning to improve its specialist credentials but the majority of the turnaround plan is [...]
Firstgroup set to appoint new chairman December 5, 2013 FIRSTGROUP is set to hire Aviva chairman John McFarlane to take the same role at the transport group, replacing Martin Gilbert. FirstGroup is expected to make an announcement today, according to Sky News. Gilbert said he would step down following First’s fundraising in May. He’s been at the firm since its 1995 foundation.