Severe weather and the recession put a dampener on Axa UK earnings February 18, 2010 FREAK storms and floods in 2009 sent Axa’s UK year-end earnings tumbling by 18 per cent. The firm’s underlying earnings decreased to £235m, from £288m in 2008. Commercial losses within its general insurance business totalled £157m. Axa’s UK Property and Casualty arm was the worst hit, but reported strong revenue growth in personal motor and [...]
CPP hopes to buck the trend of IPO failures in March listing February 18, 2010 INSURANCE firm CPP will brave choppy IPO waters with a March flotation. It has not announced how much it plans to raise but City A.M. has learned the firm hopes to issue up to £30m from new shares, valuing it at £450m. It is believed owner and founder Hamish Ogston will also sell a £150m [...]
BAE profits tumble after truck deal loss February 18, 2010 BAE Systems swung to a loss last year after a major writedown linked to its purchase of US military group Armor Holdings. The British defence company said it suffered a net loss of £67m in 2009 compared with profit after tax totalling £1.745bn in 2008. BAE said it was forced to writedown £973m after Armor [...]
As the clouds of uncertainty lift, its discount to US peers is unwarranted February 18, 2010 UNCERTAINTY is the biggest killer of all. With a strategic defence review set to follow the election here in the UK and the Obama administration slashing big Pentagon weapons programmes, BAE appears to be shrouded in it. But yesterday’s full year results show the clouds are clearing. It has paid $400m and $30m to settle [...]
Sigh of relief for Reed Elsevier as results hit targets February 18, 2010 REED Elsevier, which publishes Variety and New Scientist, posted sales of £6.07bn for last year in line with expectations. Its operating profit rose one per cent to £1.57bn. But new chief executive Erik Engstrom warned margins would fall slightly this year due to increased investment in legal products. He said capital spending would rise to [...]
Role of Calvert’s bookie examined February 18, 2010 THE share buyer for a retired Cazenove broker accused of insider trading was a “sophisticated” investor who “knew his way around the market”, a court heard yesterday. Malcolm Calvert, 65, is standing trial on 12 counts of insider dealing, which he denies. He is accused of passing tips he received from a mole inside Cazenove [...]
Daimler rocked by massive loss, scraps dividend February 18, 2010 German carmaker Daimler swung to a net loss of €2.6bn (£2.26bn) for 2009 and yesterday scrapped its dividend for the first time in 14 years. Daimler, which owns Mercedes Benz and is the world’s largest truck manufacturer, put the loss down to a fall in vehicle sales across all its business units due to the [...]
Barrick plans to spin-off its African unit February 18, 2010 Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold miner, is spinning off its African gold assets into a new publicly traded company that will be floated on the London Stock Exchange. The new company, called African Barrick Gold, will be the biggest UK-based gold miner. It will have 10 per cent of Barrick’s assets, giving it a [...]
London Stock Exchange installs new chief executive at Turquoise February 18, 2010 THE LONDON Stock Exchange yesterday put the finishing touches to its acquisition of trading platform rival Turquoise, as it announced a shake-up of the new venture’s management team. The merged business, which combines Turquoise and the LSE’s dark pool trading facility Baikal to form a pan-European trading platform, will be led by David Lester, the [...]
Microsoft allowed to team up with Yahoo to take on Google February 18, 2010 MICROSOFT stepped up its battle to knock Google from its pedestal yesterday when it was finally granted permission to team up with Yahoo. European and US regulators allowed the decision on the grounds that the combined company would still control just 10 per cent of the search engine market. Microsoft has so far failed to [...]