Old Mutual earnings dive as new business is hard to find August 5, 2009 OLD MUTUAL, the insurer listed jointly in the UK and South Africa, reported a bigger-than-expected drop in statutory profits yesterday, despite making improvements at its troubled US life business. South Africa’s largest insurer said its earnings were boosted by investment returns from its US bond portfolio, offsetting weakness in Europe and South African arm Nedbank. [...]
Standard Life profits plunge August 5, 2009 STANDARD Life yesterday admitted it has joined the ranks of insurers struggling in the recession, stating its pre-tax profits were down 86 per cent in the first half as consumers cut their pension savings. The group said markets remained “challenging”, as it unveiled an underlying pre-tax profit drop from £345m in the first half of 2008 [...]
Rising loan losses plunge Allied Irish into the red August 5, 2009 ALLIED Irish Bank swung to a pre-tax loss in the first half of the year, as it made a provision of €2.37bn (£2bn) for potential loan losses. The bank lost €872m in the first half, compared to a €1.28bn profit earned in the first half of 2008. The bad debt charge of €2.37bn represented 3.6 [...]
SocGen sees profits slide as bad debts mount, but investment banking thrives August 5, 2009 SOCIETE Générale (SocGen) suffered a 52 per cent decline in net profit, the French bank said yesterday, as losses on bad loans mounted and it wrote down its derivatives holdings. France’s second largest bank, posted profits of €309m (£269m) for the quarter, down from €644m in the same period of last year, despite revenue rising [...]
Lloyds makes loss but sees a ray of light August 5, 2009 LLOYDS Banking Group sank to a £4bn pre-tax loss in the first half, due to writedowns on the property loan portfolio it inherited from HBOS, but said that it believed impairments had reached their peak and would decline rapidly. The bank saw impairment rise from £2.5bn in the first half of 2008 to £13.4bn, 80 [...]
Deadline for NatEx bid issued August 5, 2009 The Takeover Panel last night issued a five-week deadline to Stagecoach and a Spanish-led consortium to make an approach for troubled rail and bus group National Express.
Axa warns on pensions, cuts jobs August 5, 2009 Europe’s second-biggest insurer Axa warned future pensioners that UK retirement incomes from annuities have been too generous in the past and will be cut from current levels once new European rules for insurers are brought in. It added that it will cut a further 350 jobs in the UK, after it unveiled a 39 per [...]
Jamie Oliver cooks up a storm August 5, 2009 Jamie Oliver, the celebrity chef yesterday revealed one of his subsidiary companies made £6.8m pre-tax profits last year, an 82 per cent jump on the year before. The sale of TV shows overseas and book sales meant turnover increased by 18 per cent. Oliver and his wife Jools awarded themselves a dividend payout of £800,000 for [...]
Correction: John Connolly August 5, 2009 We stated yesterday that Deloitte senior partner and chief executive of the UK office and chairman of its global management committee John Connolly was the chief auditor to RBS. This is not the case.
TURBULENCE AHEAD August 5, 2009 HONG KONG’S leading airline Cathay Pacific Airways posted first-half pre-tax profits of HK$1.18bn (£89.7m) yesterday, up from a loss of HK$660m in the same period last year, helped out by gains in fuel hedging. The airline said it had enough cash to buy aircraft, but warned of a difficult market ahead.
