Lancashire profit rises February 22, 2013 LLOYD’S of London insurer Lancashire Holdings yesterday launched a new capital management division as it unveiled a slight rise in year-end income. Net operating profit hit $220.3m (£144m), up $1.3m on last year, despite the company booking a $44.5m loss on claims associated with superstorm Sandy. Chief executive Richard Brindle said the decision to set up Lancashire [...]
Hiscox returns year-end profits to shareholders in £200m deal February 25, 2013 INSURER Hiscox yesterday announced plans to return £200m to investors after enjoying a bumper year of premium rises and few disaster-related payouts. This is almost its entire £217m year-end profit and the news pushed the company’s shares to a record high on the day that Robert Hiscox – the man who built the business from a small [...]
RBS and Lloyds results look set to show losses February 24, 2013 STATE-BACKED banks Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group are both expected to announce full-year results this week, with analysts forecasting both lenders will remain loss-making. Investec believes RBS, which will deliver its 2012 figures on Thursday, will announce an attributable loss of £2.2bn for the final quarter – or a £5.6bn loss for [...]
Beazley profit quadruples February 7, 2013 SPECIALIST insurer Beazley yesterday celebrated a 300 per cent rise in year-end profits to $251m (£160m) after a reduction in worldwide catastrophes. The only major payout at the Lloyd’s of London business was a $90m net loss from superstorm Sandy, which hit North America last October. Beazley’s strong position in the event insurance business means [...]
Catlin profits surge on lower natural disaster claims February 8, 2013 Insurer Catlin said this morning that its annual profit jumped almost fivefold thanks to lower natural disaster claims last year. The insurer, which is the operator of the biggest insurance syndicate at Lloyd’s of London, made a pre-tax profit of $339mm (£215.5m) over 2012, up from $71m in 2011, when insurers faced a spate of [...]
Crest Nicholson hails a jubilant market return February 13, 2013 CREST NICHOLSON made a successful return to the stock market yesterday, after the 50-year old British housebuilder completed a listing which valued it at £553m. The company, taken private by Scottish entrepreneur Tom Hunter at the height of the housing bubble in 2007, priced its shares at 220p, the upper half of its original range. [...]
City Moves for 12 February 2013 | Who’s switching jobs February 11, 2013 UBS The bank’s global asset management division has appointed Gavin Lewis business development director. Lewis has over 11 years’ experience in the investment industry. He joins from Russell Investments, where he was responsible for relationship management. MN The fiduciary management firm has announced three new appointments. Christy Jesudasan joins as senior account manager after 14 [...]
City Moves for 5 February 2013 | Who’s switching jobs February 4, 2013 Linklaters Simon Pritchard has been appointed partner in the law firm’s competition team. He is a former senior director of mergers at the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). Pritchard is also editor of UK Merger Control, and an external adviser to the OFT on international competition network matters. Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance Donald Kerr has [...]
Value of housing expands to all-time record of £4.2 trillion February 4, 2013 THE TOTAL value of the UK’s housing stock rose to breach the pre-recession peak of £4.08 trillion in 2012, according to figures released yesterday. UK houses were together worth £4.17 trillion in 2012, Lloyds Bank said, up from £4.07 trillion in 2011, and up from £3.69 trillion during the depths of the credit crunch and [...]
Lloyds renews job cutting plan with another 940 staff to go January 23, 2013 LLOYDS staff in roles from IT support to insurance to branch management were yesterday notified they will be leaving the bank as it continued to roll out its plan to cut another 15,000 jobs. Lloyds informed 940 staff across the country they will be losing their jobs over the next three to six months, depending [...]