Cowdery set to pay £2.8bn for AXA UK June 13, 2010 RESOLUTION, the insurance buyout vehicle, will ask the London market to suspend its shares this morning as it negotiates a £2.8bn takeover of AXA’s UK life and pensions business. The group, led by entrepreneur Clive Cowdery, will also give a brief update on talks with the French company. But a Rule 2.5 announcement providing full [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 9, 2010 Evolution Group The investment banking group has appointed Philip Howell as a director of the group, effective immediately. Howell was appointed chief executive of Evolution’s investment management subsidiary, Williams de Broë, in February this year. He joined from Fortis Private Banking, where he had been regional chief executive since 2005 and was also a member [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 8, 2010 Signia Wealth The ultra high net worth wealth manager has hired mobile phones tycoon John Caudwell to take up a seat on its advisory board. Caudwell will provide entrepreneurial leadership for the firm alongside its other advisers, including private equity guru Jon Moulton. Caudwell previously founded and led the Caudwell Group, including mobile phone retailer [...]
European insurers line up to buy half-stake in Barclays Vie June 1, 2010 A QUEUE of European insurers is waiting in the wings to snap up half of Barclays’ French life insurance business, Barclays Vie, after the bank last week entered talks to offload a 50 per cent stake in the venture for around €65m (£54.2m). French groups CNP Assurances, Axa and La Mondiale are all thought to [...]
NAB gets time to finalise its Axa Asia deal June 1, 2010 INSURER AXA has given National Australia Bank (NAB) six more weeks to win regulatory approval for its takeover bid for insurer and wealth manager AXA Asia Pacific Holdings (APH). All three firms are locked in an exclusivity agreement until 15 July while NAB continues talks with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which blocked [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS June 1, 2010 Hermes The asset manager has appointed Chris Goudie as an executive director for global business development and chief executive of Hermes Fund Managers in North America. Goudie joins from Pyramis Global Advisers, the fund management firm he helped to establish for Fidelity. Hermes has also hired Heiko Dahse, pictured, and Marcus Money-Chappelle from Fischer Francis [...]
Travis starts work on BSS May 31, 2010 BUILDERS’ merchant Travis Perkins yesterday began four weeks of due diligence on BSS, the plumbing and heating supplies firm, as prospects of a counter-bid began to fade. Travis Perkins made a £533m play for BSS on Friday in a move that would see it overtake Wolseley as Britain’s biggest building products distributor. Some of BSS’ [...]
Ultrapar eyes Shell assets May 31, 2010 BRAZILIAN oil company Ultrapar is set to submit an offer for Royal Dutch Shell’s European liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) arm alongside a string of private equity bidders. The Brazilian fuel and natural gas company is expected to submit a bid for the assets today, it is understood. Other possible bidders are thought to include private [...]
Investors do support AIA deal, says Pru May 25, 2010 PRUDENTIAL chairman Harvey McGrath yesterday attempted to smooth balm on investor fears by insisting the majority of shareholders support the $35.5bn (£24.7bn) acquisition of AIA, after the group’s new Asian shares dived on their debut and reports suggested AIA’s boss believes the deal is “unworkable”. “The response is constructive,” McGrath said after the dual listing [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU AGREE THAT THE GOVERNMENT’S PRORITY SHOULD BE REDUCING THE DEFICIT? May 25, 2010 GABRIELLE MCADAMS | WILLIS “I agree with the majority of the cuts so far and I agree that dealing with the deficit should be one of the top priorities, but the government shouldn’t jeopardise things like health and transport.” ZADE ALRIFAI | AXA “The government’s priority should be the economy but cutting the deficit at [...]