Sabre insurance reveals plans for £213m float with boss saying: “It’s not all young drivers in hot hatches” November 13, 2017 Quirky British car insurer Sabre today announced plans to raise £213m from a London stock market listing. The move will enable private equity firm BC Partners to realise part of its investment into the Dorking-based firm. BC, which paid £240m in 2013 for the firm, will retain a “significant stake” in Sabre post-float. Sabre specialises [...]
When the scheme is a scam: Top tips to protect your money against con artists February 7, 2018 As we see a rise in people investing online, fraudsters are changing the way they con people out of money. Worryingly, £87,000 is being lost to investment scams every single day, according to figures published by the UK’s financial watchdog last week. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) urged people to be vigilant when signing up [...]
City watchdog fines Aviva companies £8.2m for failing to police outsourcers looking after client money October 5, 2016 The City regulator has today slapped two Aviva businesses with a £8.2m penalty. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined Aviva Pension Trustees UK and Aviva Wrap UK for failing to properly oversee work it had outsourced in relation to protecting client assets. In particular, the FCA asserts that these failings were a breach of the Client Assets Sourcebook [...]
Digital challenger bank Revolut smashes more crowdfunding records with Seedrs campaign July 31, 2017 The fire continues burning under fintech with huge demand for the latest crowdfunding of digital challenger bank Revolut. More than 40,000 people have pre-registered to back the banking startup ahead of the official campaign which kicks off today. Combined, they have pledged more than £17m, however, their investment will be capped at £1,000 each and [...]
Aviva to pay half of earnings back to shareholders from 2017 July 6, 2016 Insurance giant Aviva plans to increase its dividend payout to shareholders, it told investors this morning. Ahead of its capital markets day, the UK’s second-largest insurer by market capitalisation said it planned to increase its payout ratio to 50 per cent in 2017 from its current level of 42 per cent. The announcement comes as positive [...]
These are the 100 most disruptive startups in the world (and a third are from the UK): Roman Abramovich-backed Storedot, AI chip maker Graphcore and cancer detection scientists at Grail top list June 1, 2017 A Bristol-based startup developing computer chips for artificial intelligence, an app for helping kids manage money, and a fintech just backed by Aviva, are among the UK startups to be named the most disruptive in the world. AI chip firm Graphcore was ranked second in the annual list identifying companies with the potential to “influence, [...]
Aviva hikes dividend by 10 per cent as operating profit rises 13 per cent – but combined operating ratio deteriorates August 4, 2016 Insurance giant Aviva has hiked its dividend after posting "encouraging" results for the first half of 2016. The figures Operating profit was up 13 per cent to £1.33bn, from £1.17bn last year, with operating earnings per share up one per cent to 22.4p, from 22.1p in the first half of 2015. General insurance net written premiums [...]
Skype billionaire Niklas Zennstrom and LocalGlobe back UK fintech startup Cleo and its Facebook AI chatbot for finance July 26, 2017 The billionaire co-founder of Skype and one of the UK’s top startup venture capital investors are backing a UK fintech behind a chatbot helping people with their finances that could kill off banking apps. Niklas Zennström along with Robin and Saul Klein’s LocalGlobe have invested £2m in a seed stage funding round of Cleo. Cleo’s [...]
Aviva and M&G become the latest property funds to suspend trading as investors flee the Brexit-battered industry July 5, 2016 Two more property funds have suspended trading today as investors pull their money out of UK commercial property. M&G announced this afternoon that it was temporarily suspending trading in the shares of the M&G Property Portfolio. And earlier today Aviva suspended trading in its property fund, just after the Bank of England said this morning that it was [...]