Ainslie on cusp of historic win May 17, 2012 SAILING: Britain’s Ben Ainslie will claim a record sixth Finn World Championship if he can win two points in today’s final racing in Falmouth. Ainslie won all three races yesterday.
Aviva will take rest of year to find new CEO May 17, 2012 AVIVA yesterday admitted it will take the rest of 2012 to find a new chief executive, as it announced it had seen a five per cent drop in life insurance sales for the first quarter. Andrew Moss, the insurer’s former boss, last week became the highest-profile casualty of the shareholder spring when he quit after [...]
Higher premiums help insurer Amlin recover from catastrophe May 17, 2012 LLOYD’S of London insurer Amlin yesterday said it is on course to return to profit, helped by price increases and an absence of substantial claims during the first four months of the year. “The trading environment continues to improve, with more than 75 per cent of our portfolio achieving rate increases in the period to [...]
Investec cools on acquisitions as profit drops May 17, 2012 INVESTEC is not interested in any more acquisitions for now, managing director Bernard Kantor told City A.M. yesterday, after unveiling what he called “disappointing” results for the last year. The results were hit by higher-than-expected impairments in Australia due to flooding in Queensland, Kantor said. “You can’t be happy with these results, that’s clear,” he [...]
Borrows set to tighten belts at troubled 3i May 17, 2012 PRIVATE equity house 3i is expected to shake-up its global operations after naming veteran banker Simon Borrows as its new chief executive and posting a heavy loss. Borrows, who replaced Michael Queen yesterday after answering calls from some of the group’s larger shareholders to go for the top job, will cut costs as he tries [...]
HSBC ramps up cost-savings and says overhaul is on target May 17, 2012 HSBC said yesterday that it has already achieved $2bn in annualised cost-savings and that it is likely to get the figure up to $3.5bn once its three-year overhaul is complete. It also said that it has reduced its payroll by 14,000. And its disposal or wind-down of 28 unwanted businesses has bagged the bank $5.9bn [...]
Despite the right-shoring and de-layering, Gulliver is travelling in the right direction May 17, 2012 FROM the gobbledegook spouted by HSBC’s top brass, you could be forgiven for doubting its claim that it is making strong progress in simplifying the bank. Yesterday’s strategy day, like its first one a year ago, was an orgy of jargon. Last year, the concept of “connectivity” took centre stage. This was a buzzword to [...]
HAS BRITAIN’S OLDEST PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM STOPPED THE ROT? May 17, 2012 PHILIP MIDDLETON BANK OF AMERICA MERRILL LYNCH The new capital management policy seems sensible, in that it seeks to steer a middle way between the ultimately over generous distributions which left 3i over-geared in the credit crisis and the recent approach, which tilted in the other direction… We reiterate our Buy rating on 3i. MICK [...]
Boost for Close Brothers bank May 17, 2012 FINANCIAL services group Close Brothers posted a jump in its loan book yesterday as the banking division prospered. It said the banking arm showed a “strong” performance in the quarter to 30 April with the loan book up six per cent to £4bn, helped by new business in motor finance, asset finance and property. The [...]
HP to slash up to 25,000 jobs May 17, 2012 HEWLETT-Packard is considering cutting its workforce by eight to ten per cent, or a minimum of 25,000 jobs as newly installed chief executive Meg Whitman strives to return the storied Silicon Valley institution to growth. HP, which employs more than 300,000 people across the globe, could announce the layoffs as soon as next week alongside [...]
