MPs tell FCA to sharpen up after insurance fiasco March 26, 2015 The City watchdog has not learned its lessons from the bungled insurance announcement which rocked insurance firms’ shares last year, an influential group of MPs said in a hard-hitting report today. Sloppy communications between the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and a newspaper led to a report that the watchdog was planning a probe into millions [...]
Lean premiums ebb earnings at Lloyd’s of London March 26, 2015 Lloyd’s of London profits dipped slightly last year after gross premiums written at the iconic institution fell. Pre-tax profits fell by £44m to £3.2bn for the year ending 2014, after premiums fell to £25.3bn from £25.6bn in the previous year. Overall profitability measures at the group also weakened, rising to a combined ratio of 88.1 [...]
Cenkos: A British banking model makes a comeback March 26, 2015 A boardroom chat between an Oxbridge-educated dealermaker who grew up on a Liverpool council estate and the former head of a scrap metal firm from Scotland is a scene only imagineable in a City of London boardroom. But the meeting between Avril Palmer-Baunack, former head of Universal Salvage, and Jim Durkin, chief executive of Cenkos [...]
British Gas owner Centrica warns political uncertainty could hit investment March 26, 2015 British Gas owner Centrica yesterday warned that the run-up to the 7 May election would have a knock-on effect on investment in the UK energy sector. “The UK market faces potential pressure in both the run-up to the UK General Election and in the policy decisions taken by the next government,” Centrica said in its [...]
“Do business abroad,” enthuses export expert Myleene Klass March 26, 2015 Fresh from lambasting Ed Miliband about his plans to redistribute the wealth through a mansion tax, former pop star and Littlewoods brand ambassador Myleene Klass has climbed back onto her soapbox – this time, to tell businesses they should be doing more exporting. Klass, who famously told Miliband he "may as well tax this glass [...]
Markets riled after Saudi Arabia launches airstrikes in Yemen March 26, 2015 Tensions in the Middle East stirred global markets today pushing nervous investors into safe-haven assets. Investors sought safety in gold, pushing bullion prices up to a two-and-a-half week high of $1,219.40 an ounce, on news that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies had launched air strikes in the Yemen city of Aden. Meanwhile, the dollar fell [...]
Shell to cut 250 North Sea oil jobs as oil prices plummet March 26, 2015 Oil giant Shell has said it will shed around 300 North Sea oil and gas jobs as part of a cost management drive. "The North Sea has been a challenging operating environment for some time," Paul Goodfellow, Shell's upstream vice president for the UK and Ireland at, said. "Reforms to the fiscal regime announced in the budget [...]
RBS increases the size of its Citizens sale March 26, 2015 RBS has increased the size of the tranche of US bank Citizens Financial it's planning to sell off, as investor demand showed promising signs. That means the UK bank is likely to raise between $3.2bn (£2.1bn) and $3.7bn from the sale of 135m Citizens shares, up from the original plan to sell off 132.25m. Under [...]
Supergroup’s share price surges as new strategy includes an Idris Elba designed fashion range and 2016 dividend March 26, 2015 British fashion retailer Supergroup, the maker of Superdry clothing, is roping in potential future Bond Idris Elba to help grow its business. The star of Luther and The Wire will collaborate on designing a premium fashion range for Supergroup, the retailer has revealed, among a host of plans which sent shares surging six per cent [...]
EasyJet share price slides after narrowing first half losses March 26, 2015 The figures For the six months ended 31 March EasyJet is expecting narrow post pre-tax result of a loss of £5m to a profit of £10m. The outlook for first half capacity growth has been revised up 0.2 per cent to 3.7 per cent and revenue per seat has also been hiked by 0.5 per [...]