Osmond set to play second fiddle as Pearl puts final touches to Liberty deal June 29, 2009 THE former Pizza Express entrepreneur Hugh Osmond will have a greatly reduced influence in a restructured Pearl insurance group as part of plans announced yesterday. The Cayman Islands-registed Liberty International is injecting up to £510m into Pearl in a deal that will transform the group’s balance sheet while leaving Jonathan Moss as its chief executive. [...]
Osmond set for lesser role June 3, 2009 HUGH Osmond’s role at Pearl Assurance, the highly-indebted insurance group, will be the subject of intense debate over the next few days as banks and shareholders close in on a refinancing deal. The banks have made it a condition of the deal that Osmond’s influence on the company is reduced, City A.M. has learned. In [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING May 31, 2009 THE SUNDAYSTHE SUNDAY TIMES SKY SAYS NO TO SETANTASports organisations including the Scottish Premier League may be forced to stomach deeper-than-expected cuts to their TV income after shareholders in Setanta failed to stump up enough cash to keep the broadcaster alive. Setanta’s financial position was so parlous this weekend that it asked arch-rival BSkyB for [...]
Pearl rescuer close to deal May 26, 2009 THE potential new investors in Pearl Assurance, Hugh Osmond’s highly-indebted insurance group, could end up with 60 per cent of the equity as part of a refinancing deal currently being discussed, CityA.M. has learned. Liberty Acquisition Holdings, an Amsterdam-listed special purpose vehicle headed by two private equity investors, Nicholas Berggruen and Martin Franklin, is in [...]
Pearl’s bankers in the driving seat May 18, 2009 BANK lenders to Pearl, Hugh Osmond’s struggling insurance group, have won a significant concession in their fight not to accept a major write-off on their £3bn loans. Pearl’s bankers were recently asked to take a 40 per cent write-off on their loans as part of a £500m injection of equity from a shareholder group, Liberty. This group [...]
Hugh Osmond faced with 200m Pearl share loss May 17, 2009 BUYOUT tycoon Hugh Osmond could lose around £200m on the value of his shares in the insurance giant Pearl as part of its emergency debt restructuring deal. Osmond is nailing down details on a deal, which will see its consortium of bankers, led by Lloyd’s Banking Group, restructure its £3bn debt. A source close to the [...]
Cowdery gets his man as Tiner joins Resolution team September 10, 2008 Cowdery assembles crack buyout team Clive Cowdery set up the first incarnation of Resolution in 2003 with £500,000 of his own money, after leaving General Electric’s insurance unit. The company began life as a closed life fund consolidator, before Cowdery transformed it into a FTSE 100 insurance behemoth through a series of tie-ups. A merger [...]