Catlin to launch reinsurance unit June 29, 2010 LONDON-LISTED property and casualty insurer Catlin has said it is planning to set up a Swiss reinsurance unit to take advantage of an anticipated upturn in the European reinsurance market. Bermuda-based Catlin will provide the new business, Catlin Re Switzerland, with capital reserves of at least $1bn (£663bn). Catlin aims to expand its presence in [...]
House price boom starts to crumble June 28, 2010 HOME prices fell for the first time in more than a year in May, Land Registry data showed yesterday, sparking fears of a second downturn in Britain’s fragile housing market. The average residential property dropped 0.2 per cent in value during the month as uncertainty over austerity measures to be enforced by the incoming government [...]
Pinewood shareholder calls on Grade to resign June 28, 2010 MICHAEL Grade, the former ITV chief executive and current chairman of soon-to-be floated online grocer Ocado will today be urged to resign as chairman of Pinewood Studios by one of the group’s larger shareholders. The embarrassing challenge to Grade, which will be made at today’s shareholder meeting, comes from the 18 per cent holder Crystal [...]
Top exec set to quit FSA June 28, 2010 Hector Sants’ number two at the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has become the second high-profile casualty of chancellor George Osborne’s wholesale changes to banking regulation. Managing director of supervision Jon Pain will join risk manager Sally Dewar in quitting the FSA. Pain leaves after it emerged Sants will keep his job while the FSA is [...]
Housing market is looking healthier June 28, 2010 THE long upwards run for house prices has ground to a halt. The recent history of UK house prices has confounded many commentators: values plunged when the credit crunch hit, albeit not as much as in the US, then regained over half of their losses over the past year. The present return to stagnation makes [...]
Lambert to leave the CBI June 28, 2010 RICHARD Lambert, the business lobbyist who caused a furore by warning excessively-paid executives risked being seen as “aliens”, is to step down as director-general of the CBI. Lambert will leave next year after five years at the helm of the influential body. Saxton Bampfylde, the specialist headhunter, has been appointed to find his successor. Lambert [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 28, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES SHIRE SEES SALES BOOST FROM RARE DISEASE DRUG Shire is bracing itself for a significant boost in sales after European regulators authorised teh use of teh company’s experimental drug to treat an extremely rare disease. In a decision set to be ratified by the European Commission in the coming weeks, the European Medicines [...]
Siemens to set up its own bank June 28, 2010 Siemens is seeking a banking licence to manage its own risks and expand the product portfolio of its financial services unit, the German industrial conglomerate said yesterday. Siemens, Europe’s biggest engineering company, said it had applied for the licence to German financial regulator Bafin, which is now reviewing the application. Chief financial officer Joe Kaeser [...]
Blair wants public-private co-op June 28, 2010 Tony Blair yesterday called for a flush of private sector talent to brush the cobwebs away from dusty Whitehall. The former Labour leader effectively backed a plea by Tory front-bencher Francis Maude to reinvigorate the policy-making corridors of power. Blair said rules limiting interaction between public and private employees, designed to prevent conflicts of interest, [...]
Shares gush for oil firms after big find June 28, 2010 PREMIER Oil, EnCore Oil and Nautical Petroleum saw their shares rocket yesterday after a North Sea oil find which has the potential to be one of the area’s biggest in a decade. The discovery at Catcher East, 110 miles east of Aberdeen, means the field is estimated to hold up to 300m barrels of oil, [...]