Aviva old guard steps down for top Aussie job January 23, 2014 INSURANCE giant Aviva yesterday announced the resignation of its chief financial officer Pat Regan, just a year after he narrowly missed out on the job leading the company. Regan, who was made CFO in 2010, said he will step down in June to take up the reins as chief executive officer at Australian insurer QBE [...]
MoneySuperMarket names new chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown January 23, 2014 BRUCE Carnegie-Brown is set to replace Gerald Corbett as the chairman of MoneySuperMarket, the company announced yesterday. Carnegie-Brown has been a part of the company, which helps customers to compare prices on a range of products and services, since April 2010 as a non-executive and has chaired the remuneration committee since January last year. “I [...]
PayPoint tops up sales after ATM use booms January 23, 2014 UK PAYMENTS service PayPoint, a fixture at many corner shops across London, yesterday said year-on-year revenues rose four per cent in the third quarter to £57m, thanks to strong bill and general payment growth. The FTSE-250 listed group, which was founded in 1996 to help people pay bills at the local shop, said increased use [...]
St James’s Place prospers but warns on DIY fund confusion January 23, 2014 THE CHIEF executive of wealth manager St James’s Place yesterday said the escalating price war between fund platforms risked making investing more difficult for savers. Boss David Bellamy said new charging structures used by fund supermarkets made it harder for DIY investors to understand how much they were paying. “What I think is unfortunate is [...]
Lightbulb moment for IP as it buys intellectual property rival January 23, 2014 INTELLECTUAL property company IP Group yesterday bought rival firm Fusion IP in a deal valuing Fusion at £88m. IP, which works with universities to commercialise research ideas, already owned 20 per cent of the firm before yesterday’s deal. A £70m offer for the rest of the company it did not already own was accepted by [...]
Irn-Bru owner AG Barr upbeat as sales surge January 23, 2014 SCOTTISH drinks giant AG Barr said thirst for its soft drinks continued unabated in the final quarter of the year and it expects to post a 6.1 per cent jump in full-year sales. The owner of Irn-Bru and Tizer said trading in the last three months is expected to be ahead of the overall drinks [...]
South Africa’s platinum output choked as workers go on strike January 23, 2014 SOUTH Africa’s three largest platinum miners yesterday confirmed in separate statements that their workers had gone on strike and that production would be affected. The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), the dominant union representing the companies’ workers, had informed Lonmin, Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and Impala Platinum (Implats) that they intended to go [...]
Petropavlovsk’s production on track but low gold price weighs January 23, 2014 THE CHAIRMAN of Petropavlovsk yesterday warned that there might be more job cuts and that management bonuses would be cancelled once again, as the Russia-focused gold miner prepares for another challenging year. Peter Hambro, who founded the FTSE 250-quoted company, told City A.M. that “life is not easy for any of the miners” and that [...]
NextEnergy Solar Fund plans a London flotation to raise £150m January 23, 2014 NEXTENERGY Solar Fund, a Guernsey-domiciled investment company focused on solar energy assets in the UK, yesterday said it plans to launch an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange to raise £150m. Next Energy manages and monitors over 1,100 solar power plants, with an estimated asset value of £3.1bn. It is expected that the [...]
Severstal sales up four per cent January 23, 2014 Russian steel miner Severstal yesterday celebrated “healthier market conditions” as it announced a four per cent annual rise in consolidated sales of steel to 15.1m products in its operational results for last year. The Moscow-listed company, whose global depository receipts – known as GDRs – are traded on the London Stock Exchange, said the “overall [...]
