WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 3, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES POLICE SHUT DOWN MARIPOSA HACKER RING Police, private security experts and internet service providers said yesterday they had shut down the Mariposa botnet, one of the largest networks of hacked personal computers discovered. It had siphoned off financial and other information from inside half of the largest 1,000 US companies. Computers using about [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 2, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES HGCAPITAL SAYS GOLDSHIELD UNDERSTATED PROFITS FOR YEARS Goldshield Group understated its profits by several million pounds over a number of years, according HgCapital, the private equity group that backed a £179m management buy-out of the drugmaker last year. HEDGE FUNDS RAISE BETS AGAINST EURO Hedge funds are raising their bets against the euro [...]
Admiral sees revenues rise 18pc to £1.1bn March 2, 2010 INSURANCE group Admiral has seen record growth after breaking the £1bn revenue barrier at the same time as posting double-digit growth in UK profits. Income for 2009 reached £1.07bn, marking an 18 per cent increase from 2008 when turnover came in at £910m. Chief executive Henry Engelhardt said the group’s results were driven by the [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 22, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES NORTEL AIMS TO BLOCK PENSIONS CLAIM Nortel Networks and its creditors are seeking to block the UK pensions regulator from pursuing a claim worth as much as £2.1bn ($3.3bn) against the company’s worldwide assets to cover the shortfall in its UK scheme. The Canadian telecommunications equipment maker and its UK subsidiary filed for [...]
BMW hands pension to Deutsche February 22, 2010 Car maker BMW has offloaded £3bn of longevity risk from its UK pension scheme to Deutsche Bank, in the largest longevity insurance transaction conducted to date. Deutsche’s insurance subsidiary Abbey Life carried out the deal, which was structured with pension insurer Paternoster in which Deutsche is a shareholder, in order to cover the pension scheme [...]
Severe weather and the recession put a dampener on Axa UK earnings February 18, 2010 FREAK storms and floods in 2009 sent Axa’s UK year-end earnings tumbling by 18 per cent. The firm’s underlying earnings decreased to £235m, from £288m in 2008. Commercial losses within its general insurance business totalled £157m. Axa’s UK Property and Casualty arm was the worst hit, but reported strong revenue growth in personal motor and [...]
Kwik-Fit to sell insurance arm February 14, 2010 Kwik-Fit, the car repair firm, is preparing to sell its fast-growing insurance business for more than £200m. The firm, which was founded by Sir Tom Farmer, the Scottish entrepreneur, has hired bankers at Credit Suisse to carry out a review of Kwik-Fit Financial Services, which employs more than 1,000 people and handles 10m calls a [...]
‘Prescriptive theory just an excuse’ February 4, 2010 IRATE is not a word that springs to mind frequently during a chat with the affable Mark Cueto. The very epitome of laid-back, he seems the kind who would meet the clamping of his car with a good-natured shrug. But the England wing bristles and takes a deep breath when one particular subject is brought [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 3, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES AXA PUTS SPOTLESS UP FOR SALE Spotless, the French maker of laundry and cleaning products, could become the latest “pass-the-parcel” deal between private equity groups, after Axa Private Equity put it up for sale with a €600m-€700m price tag. A recent recovery in debt markets has encouraged private equity groups to become more [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 27, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES TWITTER WORKS ON TECHNOLOGY TO EVADE CENSORS Twitter, the internet social network, is developing technology it hopes will prevent the Chinese and Iranian governments being able to censor its users. Evan Williams, the chief executive and co-founder of Twitter, which has been credited with helping anti-government protesters in Iran to organise resistance, said [...]