Lords call for probe into audit oligopoly March 30, 2011 The “oligopoly” of Big Four auditors contributed to the financial crisis, according to a damning report released yesterday by the influential House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee. The committee, chaired by Conservative Lord MacGregor, called for a full probe into concentration in the industry by the Office of Fair Trading, citing the fact that 99 [...]
Tepco asks for public money March 30, 2011 TOKYO Electric Power Company (Tepco) asked for government funding yesterday as it admitted that it would not be able to fund a clean-up at its stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Tepco said it wanted to remain a publicly-listed company, but added that emergency loans of 2 trillion yen (£15bn) from the country’s banks were not [...]
Tullow in $2.9bn Uganda deal March 30, 2011 OIL explorer Tullow has agreed to sell stakes in its Ugandan operations to France’s Total and China’s CNOOC for $2.9bn (£1.8bn), bringing in big partners to develop the oil fields. Tullow said it agreed to sell each company a one third interest in fields around Lake Albert, which Tullow estimates to contain 1bn barrels of [...]
PROFANITY FAIR March 30, 2011 Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen (top left) claimed that Bill Gates tried to deprive him of shares in the technology giant in its heyday in the 1980s. In an excerpt of Allen’s memoirs in Vanity Fair, he claims Gates tried to cut him out of the company after he fell ill with cancer in 1982. Gates [...]
The insurance man turns to banking March 30, 2011 AFTER nine years at the helm of London’s insurance market Lloyd’s, its chairman Lord Levene is singularly unshockable even in the face of disasters on the unprecedented scale that struck Japan. The earthquake and tsunami which hit the northeastern coast of Japan on 10 March will cost insurers $20bn-30bn (£12.5bn-18.8bn), but Levene doesn’t think the [...]
Disasters cut Lloyd’s profits March 30, 2011 LONDON’S insurance market Lloyd’s paid out more than £2bn in global catastrophe claims in 2010, pushing its profit down 43 per cent to £2.2bn, it said yesterday. It said the fall was to be expected in a year that saw net claims of £2.18bn and the third-highest level of catastrophe losses in 15 years apart [...]
Hiscox: Japan loss could hit $150m March 30, 2011 LLOYD’S insurer Hiscox expects up to $150m (£94m) in estimated losses from Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, it said yesterday. Hiscox said it could expect losses of between $60m and $150m based on its exposure to an event that caused a $24bn loss to the global insurance industry. Its average loss within that range would [...]
Badly written regulations cost insurers $25bn March 30, 2011 INCONSISTENT regulatory practices in different jurisdictions are costing global insurance firms an extra $25bn (£16bn), research yesterday found. Europe, the US and China are all implementing new regulation to make insurers hold more regulatory capital, such as Solvency II. But greater convergence between regimes could cut billions from insurers’ compliance costs, according to a report [...]
Verdes hired by AssetCo investors March 30, 2011 Shares in troubled fire engine provider?AssetCo jumped 5.9 per cent yesterday after turnaround specialist Verdes Management said it had been appointed to help certain shareholders – although it insisted it was not planning a bid. “AssetCo is regarded by certain shareholders as a business of significant value which is in danger of not being realised [...]
Sonova execs quit over share sale March 30, 2011 The three top managers at Swiss group Sonova, the world’s biggest hearing aid maker, have quit after a probe into executive share sales ahead of a recent profit warning. Chairman Andy Rihs, chief executive Valentin Chapero and chief financial officer Oliver Walker are all stepping down after executives sold shares or options earlier this month, [...]
