“Year of the baked potato” sees Admiral profits rise March 5, 2014 FTSE 100 car insurer Admiral has reported a rise in profit before tax of seven per cent to £370m, according to the company's preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2013. Earnings per share were up 10 per cent at 104.6p and group vehicle count was also rose four per cent. 7,000 staff are [...]
Most British motorists wouldn’t use a driverless car March 4, 2014 The Geneva Motor Show opens today, bringing with it the car industry’s latest attempts to show off driverless vehicles – but British motorists look unlikely to adopt the new technology any time soon. Swiss firm Rinspeed is exhibiting the XchangE, a concept car based on the Tesla Model S that allows passengers to sit facing [...]
Video: The City’s poshest pancake race March 4, 2014 Earlier today, spectators gathered for what has to be a contender for London's poshest pancake race – certainly the City's (remember parliament had one earlier). The 10th Anniversary Inter-livery Pancake Race, held at the Guildhall, saw four livery companies – the car men, the cutters, the insurers and the launderers – speed their battered charges [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 04 March 2014 March 3, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Nine private equity heads share $2.5bn The nine founders of the four big listed US private equity companies took home more than $2.5bn between them last year, with Apollo Global Management’s Leon Black alone receiving $546m. The dividend income, investment profits and other compensation shared by the founders of Apollo, Blackstone, Carlyle and [...]
Human touch March 2, 2014 Annabel Palmer talks to Lindsay Pattison, UK chief executive at Maxus Global SIR Martin Sorrell decided in 2008 that there was room in the world for another global media network. In October that year, Maxus was born. Current UK chief executive and global chief strategy officer Lindsay Pattison has been credited with humanising and realigning [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 27 February 2014 February 26, 2014 FINANCIAL TIMES Hester to shore up RSA with £1.5bn Stephen Hester is finalising plans to shore up RSA’s balance sheet by as much as £1.5bn with one of the biggest equity raisings by a UK insurer, said people with knowledge of the matter. The former Royal Bank of Scotland chief, drafted in to run RSA [...]
Rangers puts its iconic Edmiston House on the line February 24, 2014 Car parks and derelict buildings in Glasgow are not the obvious things that spring to mind when considering potential investment opportunities for Isle of Man-registered hedge funds. Yet Laxey Partners, the $2bn activist investor, this morning announced that it has insured a £1m loan to Scottish football giant Glasgow Rangers against land and buildings around [...]
What you need to know before the US open February 20, 2014 US stock index futures suggest markets will open lower, as investors look again towards ongoing emerging market turmoil. The continuing and severe violence in Ukraine at the moment has seen the country’s hryvnia plummet to five-year lows, and state debt insurance rising to 2009 highs. Weaker growth from China – the Markit/HSBC purchasing managers’ index [...]
City & Gild: You can’t handle the truth! February 14, 2014 I find a useful shorthand definition for ‘brand’ is the combination of product and reputation – where reputation is past performance and future promise. Which, if you read the press in any given day, should be the cause of sleepless nights for CEOs around the world. Because, in this day and age of social media, [...]
LV boss expects car insurance premiums to rise in year ahead February 3, 2014 THE BOSS of insurer LV has said he expects car insurance premiums will rise in the next year, after the industry overestimated the impact of regulatory changes. LV has released a trading statement for 2013 showing overall losses for the business in both its general and life insurance arms. The insurer made an £89,000 loss [...]