CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS November 4, 2010 Aviva The insurer has hired Helen Hislop as chief financial officer and Patrick Dixneuf as chief operations officer for its European arm, with effect from 1 January. Both will be based in Paris, and will work under EMEA chief executive Andrea Moneta. Hislop replaces Tim Harris, who has moved to Aviva as deputy chief financial [...]
CITY VIEWS: HAVE YOU NOTICED THE RISE IN THE COST OF CLOTHES? November 3, 2010 STUART ESSEX | XL INSURANCE “I don’t think prices have gone up, or at least I haven’t noticed any massive change. There’s a lot of competition between clothes shops in the City, so there tends to be lots of special deals. But I have seen the price of food rising.” PHIL SPRATT | ACCENTURE “Not [...]
Aviva plans £400m savings in two years November 2, 2010 INSURANCE company Aviva has announced plans for £400m in savings over the next two years, half of which will come from efficiency gains, and half from cost savings. It has also said that it will close its final salary pension scheme, which has 7,600 members, something that will save £50m a year. Several hundred jobs [...]
Aviva unveils £200m cost cutting programme November 2, 2010 Insurer Aviva unveiled £200m in planned cost cuts and said it was set for “strong profitable growth” this year after sales for the first nine months rose in line with expectations. Aviva, Britain’s second-biggest insurer, will take out £200m in costs and deliver another £200m in efficiency gains by the end of 2012, it said. [...]
Insurers to post upbeat numbers October 31, 2010 TWO of the UK’s biggest insurers are set to announce an upturn in business when they update the market on trading this week. Aviva is expected to unveil a £1bn increase in life and pension sales to £25bn when it reports figures for the first nine months of the year tomorrow. And Standard Life, which [...]
Three cheers for the stars of the Square Mile October 28, 2010 LAST night was truly an exciting and exceptional occasion: City A.M.’s inaugural awards celebrating the best and brightest of London’s business, financial and investment communities. Our inaugural awards ceremony saw more than 450 guests in their finery roll up at the Grange Hotel at St Pauls. Our winners, unique in that each was initially chosen [...]
Brit insurance has accepted £888m offer October 26, 2010 BRIT Insurance yesterday accepted a formal offer from private equity firms Apollo Management and CVC Capital Partners, which values Brit at up to £888m. The offer from Apollo and CVC, which have formed a new company called Achilles to make the offer, values the Lloyds of London insurer at £10.75 per share but includes a [...]
CITY VIEWS: SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT STEP IN TO PROTECT BRITISH COMPANIES FROM OVERSEAS TAKEOVERS? October 21, 2010 ANINDYA ROY AVIVA “It’s not a fundamentally bad idea to allow overseas companies to buy British ones. We live in a globalised world. The inflows are good for the economy, but there is a balance to be made to protect the national interest.” CHARLES OPPENHEIM LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY “I have mixed feelings. When you think of [...]
Henderson sees its assets grow by 5pc October 21, 2010 FUND management group Henderson saw its assets under management rise five per cent over the third quarter of the year due to market and foreign exchange gains, despite cautious investors pulling a net £100m out of the firm’s funds. Assets under management grew £2.8bn to a total of £59.2bn over the quarter, pulling them up [...]
CITY VIEWS: SHOULD UNIVERSITIES BE ALLOWED TO CHARGE WHAT THEY WANT? October 11, 2010 DHUGAL ROBERTSON | AXE “No. If you are going to pay for university, then you should be provided with job opportunities at the end of your degree and not with a load of debt.” GABI MASON | TESTPLANT LTD “University fees should be capped. If they aren’t, we’ll end up with a large division of [...]