Discovery pays £155m for remaining stake in Prudential’s UK subsidiaries November 10, 2014 SOUTH African health insurance firm Discovery has purchased PruHealth and PruProtect from parent company Prudential Assurance, the UK subsidiary of Prudential. Discovery paid £155m for the remaining 25 per cent equity stake in the joint venture, which was initially established as an equally owned venture between Discovery and Prudential. In 2010, Discovery upped its shareholding [...]
Aviva closes IPO of Turkish arm November 10, 2014 INSURANCE company Aviva yesterday confirmed the closing of its Turkish arm’s IPO, following its announcement in September that it was offering to the public market a minority stake in the shares of its joint venture with Sabanci Group, AvivaSA. The company, which will be listed as Avisa on Borsa Istanbul, the Turkish stock exchange, from [...]
Asda boss Andy Clarke’s 4 top leadership tips | City A.M. February 6, 2014 Speaking last night at the British Retail Consortium’s Future Retail Leader’s event, Asda chief executive Andy Clarke gave an account of his journey to the top – starting with the day he left school with just one O Level in English at 15. Realising he had spent too much time on the rugby pitch in [...]
Songbird Estates rejects Qatar bid: Investors way off with Canary Wharf proposal November 10, 2014 Songbird Estates, the majority shareholder of London’s Canary Wharf, values itself at over 25 per cent more than the recently rejected £2.2bn takeover bid from the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Brookfield Property Partners. Songbird – which owns 69 per cent of Canary Wharf Group, the owner of the east London-based financial district—rebuffed the takeover [...]
Ovo Energy to launch second partner project November 10, 2014 INDEPENDENT energy supplier Ovo is continuing to put pressure on the big six with its second community partnership, this time in Sussex. The firm is partnering with Community Energy South to launch the Sussex Energy Tariff in the spring of 2015. According to Ovo, the project could save residents up to £200 a year off [...]
Genel poised to reveal lucrative Turkey gas deal November 9, 2014 OIL COMPANY Genel Energy may be preparing to unveil a gas supply deal with Turkey this week. According to analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML), the London-listed firm could stand to benefit from gas agreements between Kurdistan and Turkey, which could see Kurdistan supplying as much as 10 per cent of Turkey’s gas [...]
Asda boss Andy Clarke’s 4 top leadership tips February 5, 2014 Speaking last night at the British Retail Consortium’s Future Retail Leader’s event, Asda chief executive Andy Clarke gave an account of his journey to the top – starting with the day he left school with just one O Level in English at 15. Realising he had spent too much time on the rugby pitch in [...]
Bottom Line: CEO’s survival will depend on a revolution January 9, 2014 YESTERDAY marked a very unwelcome milestone for Marks & Spencer’s boss Marc Bolland. Three-and-a-half years into the job, the former Morrisons chief exec has clocked up his 10th successive quarter of declining clothing sales, leaving investors waiting for his promised turnaround yet again. That they’re giving him more time – as evidenced by yesterday’s 3.6 [...]
Hester says RSA recovery is on track but premiums dip by £1bn November 6, 2014 Insurance firm RSA saw its shares decline by almost five per cent yesterday as it reported premiums of £5.68bn for the first nine months of 2014, down nine per cent from £6.74bn last year. The company said profit for the third quarter was “strong”, due to £198m gains from its disposals of Noraxis and its [...]
Sour first half for Tate & Lyle as profits plummet by 40 per cent November 6, 2014 SUGAR manufacturer Tate & Lyle revealed yesterday that operational and supply-chain disruption had led to a 40 per cent drop in profit in the first six months of the 2014 financial year. Profit before tax fell from £173m to £104m during the period, while sales dropped from £1.5bn to £1.2bn, a 21 per cent decline. [...]