RSA buys Canada’s GCAN to create fourth-largest insurer October 4, 2010 insurer RSA said it had agreed to buy Canada’s GCAN for 420m Canadian dollars (£259m), underscoring its takeover ambitions with a deal that creates Canada’s fourth-biggest general insurer. RSA, best known in Britain for its More Than home and motor insurance business, said the deal would boost earnings immediately, and would generate a mid-teens investment [...]
ABI: Don’t ignore UK’s institutions September 15, 2010 THE NEW chairman of the ABI’s investment committee has warned regulators that an over-zealous approach to protecting the interests of retail shareholders in the wake of the financial crisis could come at the expense of institutional investors. In his first official speech in the role, Aviva Investors chief executive Alain Dromer expressed support for a [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS September 9, 2010 Clifford Chance The law firm said yesterday that Michael Dakin, the chief legal officer at Dubai-based investment firm Future Group, is to rejoin its ranks on the European high-yield team. Dakin left Clifford Chance to join Future in August last year, having been a partner at the law firm for four years. Prior to that, [...]
Time for Johnson to make the Red Rose bloom again February 2, 2011 ENGLAND begin this year’s RBS 6 Nations as the bookmakers’ favourites and, with an encouraging autumn series behind them and three home games in the championship, the initial predictions were that Martin Johnson’s ripening side, currently ranked fourth in the world, would be able to live up to those lofty expectations. In mid-November a record [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS August 17, 2010 LLOYDS Morgan Stanley places an “underweight” rating on Lloyds banking group. It says first-half figures were reassuring but warns of lower improvement ahead, with a slowing down of its book re-pricing. The bank faces a funding challenge, with the world facing austerity measures and a predicted housing dip by the end of 2011, it believes. [...]
Brit insurance has accepted £888m offer October 26, 2010 BRIT Insurance yesterday accepted a formal offer from private equity firms Apollo Management and CVC Capital Partners, which values Brit at up to £888m. The offer from Apollo and CVC, which have formed a new company called Achilles to make the offer, values the Lloyds of London insurer at £10.75 per share but includes a [...]
Aviva focuses on Europe as rivals go east March 4, 2010 AVIVA’S heavy cost cutting and its successful flotation of Delta Lloyd has paid off as it announced a three per cent rise in operating profits for 2009. The British insurer recorded an end of year operating profit of £3.48bn, up from £3.37bn in 2008. Its Life business arm was a particularly strong performer increasing 11 [...]
Aviva profit up despite weather claims March 4, 2010 INSURER Aviva reported a three per cent increase in 2009 profit, with cost cutting helping to offset a rise in weather-related claims. The company’s operating profit of £3.48bn was up from £3.37bn the previous year, its annual results showed. Analysts had pencilled in a profit fall to £3.01bn.
Three cheers for the stars of the Square Mile October 28, 2010 LAST night was truly an exciting and exceptional occasion: City A.M.’s inaugural awards celebrating the best and brightest of London’s business, financial and investment communities. Our inaugural awards ceremony saw more than 450 guests in their finery roll up at the Grange Hotel at St Pauls. Our winners, unique in that each was initially chosen [...]
Aviva warns firms over executive pay March 1, 2010 ChairmEn of large listed companies in the UK were warned to justify executive pay packets by one of the country’s biggest fund managers, it emerged yesterday. Aviva’s fund management arm, Aviva Investors, wrote to over 800 firms telling them it expected salaries and bonuses to be “prudent [and] aligned to business strategy and performance over [...]