The euro has been left treading air June 15, 2010 WITH Moody’s downgrade putting Greek government debt on a par with that of Romania and Latvia, analysts are starting to ask if this is end for the Eurozone. At a press briefing this week Theodora Zemek of AXA Investment Managers even commented that the next two years could see the wholesale break-up of the euro. [...]
Cowdery eyes AXA synergies June 14, 2010 RESOLUTION will need to extract annual cost savings of more than £500m from AXA UK to make its takeover of the French behemoth’s British life and pensions business worthwhile, the investment bank Goldman Sachs predicted yesterday. Shares in Resolution, entrepreneur Clive Cowdery’s insurance consolidation project, were suspended after it confirmed its intention to pay £2.75bn [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 13, 2010 THE SUNDAYS The Sunday Telegraph $2.6M BUFFETT LUNCH WON BY ANONYMOUS BIDDER A mystery benefactor has paid $2.6m (£1.8m) to meet with billionaire investor Warren Buffett for a business lunch. The Sage of Omaha auctioned his time in aid of a San Francisco charity. This year’s auction brought in 25 per cent more than any [...]
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’ [...]