Harlequins chasing the American dream: Why the Premiership rugby club is moving pre-season to California December 24, 2015 Rugby is the fastest growing sport in the USA and Harlequins are looking to ride the wave of its new found popularity by swapping the suburbs of West London for the sun of California in upcoming summers. The 149-year-old rugby club is planning to play pre-season warm up games in America for the next four [...]
City Moves for 02 November 2015 | Who’s switching jobs November 2, 2015 LINKEDIN John Herlihy has been appointed vice president and managing director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at the professional network. He joins from Google, where he was vice president of SMB sales and head of Google Ireland. Prior to that, Herlihy held leadership positions at tech companies in Europe and the United States. [...]
City Moves for 28 August 2015 | Who’s switching jobs August 27, 2015 Pen Underwriting Jonathan Turner has been appointed executive chairman at the UK underwriting business within the Arthur J Gallagher group. He was most recently at Brit Insurance, where his roles included active underwriter of its Syndicate 2987. Turner has also held roles at QBE International Insurance. Deutsche Bank Kinner Lakhani has been appointed co-head of [...]
Aviva meets criticism over Friends Life deal November 24, 2014 Analysts have warned that Aviva’s share price could continue to decline, following news that the insurance group is in talks concerning a £5.6bn merger with rival Friends Life. Shares dropped by more than five per cent yesterday when the markets opened for the first time since the news broke. “The market is in a state [...]
Friends Life and Aviva started merger talks months ago November 26, 2014 Insurance firm Aviva has been in talks about a potential merger with Friends Life for a number of months, City A.M. understands. Discussions began when Aviva chief executive Mark Wilson contacted his opposite number at Friends Life, Andy Briggs. But it was only on Friday when Aviva was forced to confirm the talks due to [...]
Rugby World Cup: Warren Gatland turns spotlight onto rivals August 31, 2015 Wales coach Warren Gatland has turned up the heat on England and Ireland ahead of their clash at Twickenham this weekend after naming his squad for the Rugby World Cup yesterday. New Zealand-born fly-half Gareth Anscombe was omitted from the principality’s 31-man party after suffering an ankle injury in training last week, while wing Alex [...]
Tottenham Hotspur sponsor Under Armour posts first billion-dollar quarter October 22, 2015 Like many of the athletes who sport its brand, Under Armour has enjoyed a good year after surpassing $1bn in quarterly revenue for the first time. The figures The sportswear retailer posted revenues of $1.2bn (£800m) in its third quarter, a 28 per cent increase on last year's $938m. Under Armour heralded the "game-changing" performance of [...]
Aviva agrees £5.6bn deal to buy Friends Life December 2, 2014 Aviva, the multinational insurance company, is putting the finishing touches on a deal to acquire rival Friends Life for £5.6bn. According to a statement released this morning, the proposed deal for the recommended all-share acquisition will mean Friends Life shareholders receive 0.74 new Aviva shares for each Friends Life share in their inventory, meaning Friends [...]
West End landlords club together to create business improvement district October 15, 2015 The lobby group behind London’s West End has unveiled plans to launch a new business improvement district (BID) run by the area’s landlords to oversee £16m of investment into the area. The New West End Company, which represents 600 businesses around Oxford Street, Bond Street and Regent Street, is already a BID itself but funded [...]
Insurance deal frenzy shows no signs of stopping as Phoenix considers offer for Cinven subsidiary September 17, 2015 Insurer Phoenix Group today confirmed it’s in talks about a possible takeover of Cinven-owned Guardian Financial Services. “Phoenix has been evaluating Guardian Financial Services as part of an on-going sale process for the Guardian Financial Services business,” it said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange today. “Discussions remain on a non-exclusive basis. There [...]