Admiral diversifies into home insurance July 20, 2010 BRITISH car insurer Admiral yesterday announced plans to expand into household insurance, making its first foray outside the motor market in pursuit of continued growth. Admiral, which insures about six per cent of the cars on Britain’s roads and also owns popular price comparison website Confused.com, will start underwriting household insurance next year, a spokesman [...]
Lesley Knox takes chair at Grosvenor July 20, 2010 LESLEY Knox, one of only two female chairmen at FTSE 100 firms, yesterday added another prestigious role to her CV as chairman of Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster’s property firm. Grosvenor said its current chair, Lord (David) Home, plans to retire as a trustee of the company and from the board at the end of [...]
IG Group smashes profit forecasts July 20, 2010 FINANCIAL trading firm IG Group announced yesterday that pre-tax profits jumped by more than 25 per cent for the year ending 31 May, beating most analyst expectations. Shareholders will also get their slice of the pie after the company announced a 13.5p dividend, which brings the total dividend for the year to 18.5p, a 25.5 [...]
WorldSpreads announces new partnership July 20, 2010 SPREAD betting firm WorldSpreads announced its latest partnership with 188Bet, one of the world’s largest online bookmakers, yesterday. It will provide all financial spread betting services to 188Bet’s customers, including equities and currencies trading. This deal comes hot on the heels of WorldSpreads partnership to provide the same service to bookmaker Ladbrokes, which was announced [...]
ANALYST VIEWS: HOW DO YOU RATE IG’S RESULTS? July 20, 2010 ROBIN SAVAGE| COLLINS STEWART “The results today have been fantastic. Not only have profits increased but it has a very strong cashflow position. This is helpful in the current regulatory environment but it also should boost returns to shareholders.” NITIN ARORA | EXECUTION NOBLE “Thanks to IG Group’s pre-close trading update in June, most of [...]
Nokia Siemens wins $7bn deal July 20, 2010 Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has won an eight-year contract worth more than $7bn (£4.6bn) in the US, a deal analysts said could be the largest order ever placed in the mobile telecoms gear industry. Under the agreement, NSN will build and operate a high-speed wireless network for Harbinger Capital Partners new LightSquared venture. The deal, [...]
EC lifts restrictions on Sky Italia July 20, 2010 The European Commission yesterday ruled that the competitive landscape in Italy had changed enough that Italian pay-TV service Sky Italia should be allowed to bid for a digital terrestrial TV frequency, removing a restriction placed on the satellite-TV company since 2003. The ruling came with the condition that Sky Italia, 100 per cent owned by [...]
BANK CHIEF ‘OGRE’ GETS AN IMAGE OVERHAUL July 20, 2010 FAIRFAX chief executive Stefan Allesch-Taylor is on the blower following a story in this column yesterday about the boutique bank scouting around for a new investor – a move which could potentially usurp the big man’s family trust as the firm’s largest shareholder. Not that Allesch-Taylor’s particular beef is with the story itself, mind. He’s [...]
RBS gets trio of bids for WorldPay division July 20, 2010 Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has received three second round bids for its £2.6bn payment processing business WorldPay. Three private equity vehicles tabled bids before the Monday deadline, according to sources close to the matter. As expected, Advent International and Bain have teamed up, while TPG has also bid and so has Clayton, Dubilier & [...]
Barclays finalises deal to buy Sweden’s Tricorona July 20, 2010 BARCLAYS’ offer for Swedish carbon credits trading firm Tricorona was yesterday declared unconditional, reinforcing the bank’s position as the most active player in the emissions market. Last month, Barclays announced a recommended cash offer, via its TAV subsidiary, of eight Swedish kronor (71p) per share for Tricorona, valuing the firm at 1.13bn kronor, or £100.4m. [...]
