Lloyds of London to spend £300m on new solvency rules January 26, 2011 Lloyd’s of London expects to spend £300m preparing for the European Union’s new Solvency II capital rules for insurers, the chairman of the insurance market said. “It’s a huge task,” said Peter Levene, Lloyd’s of London chairman told Reuters Insider. “It’s costing Lloyds markets just to get ready for Solvency II £300m. It’s a lot [...]
Permira and Axa plan a joint bid to buy Opodo January 23, 2011 PERMIRA and Axa Private Equity are planning to make a joint €500m (£425.5m) bid for Opodo tomorrow, as they seek to compete against US internet travel giants Expedia and Orbitz. However the two private equity groups are likely to face bidding competition from their US rival Carlyle, according to the Financial Times. The newspaper added [...]
HP reveals board reshuffle January 20, 2011 Hewlett-Packard is shaking up its board, bringing in five new directors including former eBay chief Meg Whitman, as new chief executive Leo Apotheker redesigns the company. In addition to Whitman, HP named as directors Shumeet Banerji, chief executive of Booz & Co; Gary Reiner, former chief information officer of General Electric; Patricia Russo, former chief [...]
ENTREPRENEURS NEWS | IN BRIEF January 20, 2011 START UP DISCOUNT WEBSITE LAUNCHED The National Business Awards Entrepreneur of the Year winner Nick Ogden launched a non-for-profit website (www.business.co.uk) that is designed to encourage entrepreneurs to start their own businesses. The website hopes to provide access to the discounts, offers and incentives that are available through partnership. The companies participating so far included [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS January 17, 2011 RSM Tenon The financial services firm has appointed two new directors and an associate director in London. Nick Atkinson has been promoted to a risk management director, specialising in internal audits of the NHS. Nick Davies (pictured) has been promoted to business advisory director in the audit, tax and advisory team, specialising in corporate clients. [...]
Insurers agree to stop sharing prices January 13, 2011 SEVEN insurance groups including Aviva and Axa Insurance UK agreed to stop sharing motor policy pricing data using an Experian tool after the UK regulator said it could limit competition. The tool, Whatif? Private Motor, allowed insurers to access the pricing information supplied by competitors to brokers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said in [...]
AXA fund raises €350m to finance property loans January 4, 2011 REAL estate asset manager Axa Real Estate has raised €350m (£300m) in the first close of its commercial property debt fund to take advantage of the shortage of bank loans to the sector. The firm is targeting a final level of €1bn for the fund, to add to €1.15bn in existing commitments it has gained [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 3, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES CHINA TRAVEL GROUP PULLS OUT OF AIM Et-China.com International Holdings, the Chinese travel specialist, will today become the first company to quit Aim this year. Shares in the company, which raised £4.4m at 127p a share when it joined Aim in August 2007, were suspended at 103 1/2p in July because of its [...]
The City is back but under new management December 21, 2010 BRITAIN’S financial landscape has been transformed since we last shone a light on the City’s most powerful figures two years ago. The City A.M./CityJet Power Hundred 2011 list ranks the most influential figures in UK finance as we head into the new year. It should be no surprise that it is very different from 2009. [...]
KKR’s £1bn bid for Perpetual is called off December 20, 2010 AUSTRALIAN wealth manager Perpetual has called off talks with private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts over a $1.7bn (£1.09bn) takeover saying the approach undervalued the company, knocking its shares down by nearly 15 per cent. KKR made an indicative bid of A$38 to A$40 per Perpetual share in October, eyeing a slice of the $1.2 [...]