Unum drops out of race for Irish Life business October 20, 2011 US INSURER Unum has left the race to buy Ireland’s largest life insurer Irish Life, the Irish Independent reported yesterday, without citing any sources. Bancassurer Irish Life & Permanent has put its life business, the jewel in its crown, up for sale after stress tests as part of an EU-IMF bailout revealed it had a [...]
Savers are being hit by brutal forces October 20, 2011 IF you want to feel the full effects of inflation, try buying a bar of chocolate at your local newsagent, a sandwich near your office or even a shirt for work. It’s incredibly depressing. Prices have shot up. For savers and investors, the name of the game remains wealth preservation: how do you prevent inflation [...]
Punch struggles as Spirit profits rise October 20, 2011 Spirit reported a 17 per cent rise in full-year pretax profit, at the top end of expectations, while Punch Taverns, from which it demerged earlier this year, said full-year profit fell. “We have made a good start to the new financial year and, while we expect the consumer environment to be more challenging, we are [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS October 19, 2011 WPP UBS rates the advertising giant as “neutral” with a target price of 620p, after this week’s digital investor day gave a positive outlook on the company’s longer-term strategy. The broker says the revenue opportunities for providing a wider variety of higher value services are very clear, but could come at a cost through staff [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 19, 2011 Rockspring Rockspring Property Investment Managers has appointed Hugh Bigham (pictured) as head of capital raising and client services for North America. Bigham joins from the Sydney office of Principle Advisory Services, where he supported real estate and private equity managers. In addition, Julianne Cho joins from Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers as client services representative in [...]
Olympus admits it paid huge adviser fees October 19, 2011 Japan’s Olympus has admitted that it paid $687m (£436m) to deal advisers, confirming claims made by its sacked chief executive and reversing an earlier denial in a deepening scandal that has wiped out almost half its market value. The camera maker earlier this week said it paid advisers a fee of some 30 billion yen [...]
US inflation up but home building increases October 19, 2011 Inflation in the US has risen to an annual 3.9 per cent in September with little sign of slowing, data has shown, as energy and food prices jumped over the past month. Consumer price inflation rose at 0.3 per cent, its lowest pace since June, but that masked a two per cent increase in energy [...]
Morgan Stanley reverses losses October 19, 2011 Morgan Stanley reported a third-quarter profit, reversing a year-earlier loss, helped by a large accounting gain that stemmed from declines in the value of its debt. The second-largest U.S. investment bank earned $2.15bn (£1.36), or $1.15 per share, compared with a loss of 7 cents per share a year earlier. Revenue climbed 46 percent to [...]
Bank considered £100bn QE injection October 19, 2011 Bank of England policymakers voted unanimously for this month’s restart of quantitative easing, and considered injecting even more than the £75BN agreed, minutes to Bank’s October meeting showed. Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee surprised markets earlier this month by moving more rapidly and forcefully than expected to launch a second round of quantitative easing to support [...]
GKN sees earnings lift October 19, 2011 Industrials group GKN said third quarter profit rose 14 per cent, helped by strong growth at its automotive, agriculture and metals divisions. GKN, which produces auto components as well as airframes for planemakers Airbus and Boeing, reported a pretax profit of £100m on sales 11 per cent higher at £1.48bn in the three months to [...]