Senna gets nod for Belgian GP August 22, 2011 FORMULA ONE: German Nick Heidfeld has been dropped by the Renault team in favour of Brazilian Bruno Senna for Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix. Senna, 27, is the nephew of the late Ayrton Senna.
Amlin’s £192m losses put ACI unit in focus August 22, 2011 CHARLES Philipps, Amlin’s chief executive, defended the insurer’s underwriting strategy yesterday after unexpectedly large losses pushed the firm £192m into the red yesterday. Amlin paid £314m of catastrophe claims in the first half following earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, but Philipps said its underwriting discipline remained strong. Philipps was also quizzed by analysts over [...]
HOW POOR WAS AMLIN’S ACI DIVISION PERFORMANCE? August 22, 2011 JOY FERNEYHOUGH | BANCO ESPIRITO SANTO In our view the reputational damage to Amlin and Amlin management from ACI has been as significant as the financial one, if not greater. Its 119 per cent combined ratio is a significant deterioration and with a large bulk of losses coming in June, management will need to provide [...]
Boiler room trio jailed for 19 years August 22, 2011 A Financial Services Authority probe has resulted in three men going to jail for a total of 19 years for running a boiler room scam. The FSA, working with the City of London police and EU crime body Eurojust, investigated Tomas Wilmot and his sons Kevin and Christopher for defrauding 1,700 investors out of £27.5m [...]
CCB dismisses BofA sale prospect August 22, 2011 China Construction Bank, the world’s number two bank by market cap, yesterday tried to play down talk that Bank of America was planning to sell part of its $17bn stake in the firm., saying BofA had committed to working together for the long term. CCB also said it plans to raise 80bn yuan (£7.6bn) in [...]
Credit Suisse boss laments strong franc August 22, 2011 THE strong Swiss franc and low interest rates are pressuring Credit Suisse’s revenue but the bank is still confident of reaching a key profitability target, its chief executive said yesterday. Chief executive Brady Dougan said Switzerland’s second-biggest bank, which like many of its rivals has seen sluggish performance in investment banking in recent months, was [...]
Banks feel squeeze after fixed income trading revenues drop August 22, 2011 INVESTMENT banks have experienced radical declines in their fixed income trading divisions in the past three months, figures show. The biggest investment banking names in Europe and the US have witnessed double-digit falls in their fixed income, commodities and currencies (FICC) trading arms, once the heart of their investment banking operations. A combination of weak [...]
Britain’s growth slower than other G7 nations August 22, 2011 BRITAIN’S economy grew more slowly than any other country in the G7 over the past year, with the sole exception of tsunami-stricken Japan, according to the Office for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The UK’s economy grew by just 0.7 per cent over last twelve months, largely because output fell unexpectedly by 0.5 per cent [...]
Costain buys up contractor August 22, 2011 Engineering group Costain has agreed to buy support services contractor Promanex for £16.4m as it expands its infrastructure division. Promanex offers services like water treatment, maintenance and industrial cleaning to blue chip utility and energy groups. The firm turned over £56.2m last year, generating operatings profit of £1.8m. Costain is funding the deal through its [...]
Parseq boss mulls takeover bid August 22, 2011 A group led by online banking software firm Parseq’s own chief executive has approached the firm about a possible takeover. Chief exec Rami Cassis and others are in early stage bid discussions, the firm said in a statement. Parseq’s AIM-listed shares, which have trundled lower since May’s contract win with O2, closed up almost 30 [...]
