Qatar keen to buy RBS and Lloyds stakes February 23, 2011 QATAR plans to buy stakes in RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, the nation’s Prime Minister told David Cameron yesterday. Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani said when asked about the state-owned banks: “We are very open to any investment in the UK and we have discussed some.” The Qatar Investment Authority already [...]
Qatar keen to buy RBS and Lloyds stakes February 23, 2011 QATAR plans to buy stakes in RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, the nation’s Prime Minister told David Cameron yesterday. Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani said when asked about the state-owned banks: “We are very open to any investment in the UK and we have discussed some.” The Qatar Investment Authority already [...]
Amlin warns on strict new rules February 13, 2011 THE CHIEF executive of Amlin, the Lloyd’s of London insurer, has warned he could move the firm overseas if regulations set to be introduced in 2013 are too aggressive. Charles Philipps said any attempts by UK regulators to aggressively enforce strict European Solvency II capital requirements could force Amlin to relocate. In an interview with the [...]
HEADACHE FOR AVIVA INVESTORS OVER THEIR LIBYAN LANDLORD March 2, 2011 INTERESTING times at 14 Cornhill, the commercial property with a prime location opposite the Bank of England. Its owner has become embroiled in a little local difficulty involving global asset freezing. The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), the sovereign wealth fund that administers the troubled country’s oil billions, has owned 14 Cornhill since December 2009, when [...]
Oil costs drag the FTSE down with miners and banks sinking March 7, 2011 MINERS dragged Britain’s top share index lower yesterday, as escalating violence in the Middle East and surging oil prices crimped investor appetite for risk. The FTSE 100 index closed down 16.61 points, or 0.3 per cent, at 5,973.78, nearly 70 points below the session high as the index traded at 80 per cent of its [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 15, 2011 Barclays Sally Bott has joined the bank as group human resources director and member of the executive committee. Bott will start her role in April, replacing Cathy Turner. She joins from BP, where she was HR director, and has also recently served as a non-exec board member at UBS. Before this, she was managing director [...]
Australia flood costs to soar January 27, 2011 LOSSES from the floods devastating Australia to the Lloyd’s of London market may run to hundreds of millions of Australian dollars, its chairman Lord Levene said yesterday. Asked alongside Davos meetings to estimate the cost of the disaster, Levene said it could leave Lloyd’s underwriters with net losses, but said Lloyd’s’ total bill would not [...]
Australia flood costs to soar January 27, 2011 LOSSES from the floods devastating Australia to the Lloyd’s of London market may run to hundreds of millions of Australian dollars, its chairman Lord Levene said yesterday. Asked alongside Davos meetings to estimate the cost of the disaster, Levene said it could leave Lloyd’s underwriters with net losses, but said Lloyd’s’ total bill would not [...]
Catlin shakes off cat loss February 10, 2011 LLOYD’S insurer Catlin returned solid full-year results yesterday despite taking a $218m (£136m) hit from catastrophe-related losses. Catlin saw pre-tax profit fall by a third to $406m from $603m last year, but beat analysts’ forecasts of $382m. Underwriting profits grew five per cent to $683m, as it added ten per cent to the net premiums [...]
Bargain hunters push markets into recovery mode March 17, 2011 The FTSE rallied to an upbeat close after a six day fall, spending the day “in recovery mode”, analysts said. The FTSE 100 closed up 1.75 per cent at 5,696.11 as investors moved back into oversold stocks, with commodity stocks and chipmakers leading the gains and only six of its constituents closing lower. Stockbroker UBS [...]