Southern Cross to close and break up July 11, 2011 BANKRUPT care home operator Southern Cross admitted it was to shut down yesterday after the owners of its 752 homes walked away from negotiations. Shares in Southern Cross were suspended after it said its landlords would take control of the homes and it would cease business. The shock move surprised some who believed the landlords [...]
Banks are lending to SMEs but young firms still miss out July 11, 2011 MOST small and medium sized businesses looking to borrow from banks “got what they wanted straight away”, according to a new survey published yesterday. The majority of requests for overdrafts (72 per cent) and for loans (59 per cent) were granted, the research from BDRC Continental revealed. Yet the youngest and smallest firms were less [...]
AssetCo gains two week reprieve to continue bid talks July 11, 2011 TROUBLED fire engine supplier AssetCo won a two-week reprieve from its creditors to pursue its last-ditch sale talks yesterday. AssetCo told a court hearing to discuss a creditors petition brought by a number of its suppliers that bid talks had progressed. The court adjourned the hearing until Saturday 25 July. Bahraini bank Arcapita is in [...]
UK investment banker to follow in Ackermann’s steady footsteps July 11, 2011 AFTER a protracted search for a new chief executive, Deutsche Bank has finally settled on investment banking chief Anshu Jain as being at least half of the solution. The avid cricketer and wildlife photographer is likely to be joined at the helm by Jürgen Fitschen, global head of regional management, in the culmination of a [...]
Peabody and ArcelorMittal make $5bn bid for Australian coal giant July 11, 2011 ARCELORMITTAL and US mining giant Peabody Energy have made a A$4.68bn (£3bn) joint-offer for Australia’s Macarthur Coal, the world’s biggest producer of pulverised coal, as the demand for raw materials used making steel intensifies. The cash offer of A$15.50 a share represents a 40 per cent premium to yesterday’s close and comes just a day [...]
LLOYD’S GETS ANOTHER LIST July 11, 2011 THE Lloyd’s building, the iconic home of the Lloyd’s insurance market, could be granted listed status by English Heritage this year. Designed by Richard Rogers, the £71m building, can be listed now as its construction began 30 years ago, in 1981. English Heritage said the application could take several months as it was “a significant [...]
HSBC sells insurance business July 11, 2011 HSBC exited from the UK car insurance market yesterday with the sale of its closed motor insurance book to US firm Syndicate Holding Corp for £68.5m. HSBC Insurance stopped writing new business in 2009. The policies will largely complete within two years but some accident claims have a longer tail, a bank spokesman said. HSBC [...]
Hiscox adds £100m to capacity July 11, 2011 Lloyd’s insurer Hiscox expects to write £100m more business in 2012 than in the past year, it said yesterday. It expects its Lloyd’s syndicate 33 to need a capacity of £1bn this year, up from £900m in 2011, as it said the market was improving, particularly for reinsurance, and it wanted space available “in the [...]
Lloyd’s pays claims 40pc faster July 11, 2011 A new pilot scheme has allowed Lloyd’s to cut the time taken to pay insurance claims to 15 days from 25. The 40 per cent fall was particularly seen in smaller claims of under £100,000, leaving more time for its staff to focus on the bigger and more complex claims. The pilot Claims Transformation Programme [...]
CKI makes a £2.4bn bid for Northumbrian July 11, 2011 NORTHUMBRIAN Water surged 5.1 per cent yesterday after it received a £2.4bn provisional offer from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing. Northumbrian will now open its books to Ka-shing’s Cheung Kong Infrastructure (CKI). The 465p a share bid would give a 21 per cent premium to Northumbrian’s share price before reports of a takeover surfaced last [...]
