Lloyd’s insurer gets £600m Japanese offer December 16, 2013 ONE OF Lloyd’s of London’s biggest insurers is on the verge of being snapped up by a Japanese insurance giant, in a deal worth around £600m. Canopius Group, which is majority owned by UK private equity firm Bregal Capital, is in talks with Sompo Japan Insurance about the deal, which could be agreed as early [...]
Mayor of New York to set up city advice firm December 15, 2013 NEW YORK’S outgoing mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is setting up a consultancy business to advise other cities on development. Bloomberg, who will leave his mayoral post at the end of December after 12 years and three terms in charge, is taking a number of senior City Hall staff with him to launch the business, named Bloomberg [...]
City Moves for 13 December 2013 | Who’s switching jobs December 12, 2013 Quintant Partners The insurance and technology firm has hired Guy Shepherd as director for technology and solution design. He has over 20 years’ experience developing insurance technology solutions. Shepherd was formerly at PwC, where he was head of its insurance modelling practice. TSB The bank has announced the appointment of Susan Crichton as general counsel. [...]
RBS finance chief Bostock resigns after just 10 weeks on bank board December 10, 2013 THE FINANCE director of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is on his way out of the bank, barely two months after starting in the job. Nathan Bostock, who moved to RBS at the beginning of October, is set to quit his role and head to Santander. The RBS board confirmed last night that they [...]
High spending Brits boost Tui Travel’s profits December 10, 2013 TUI TRAVEL posted better than expected profits yesterday thanks to strong sales of more expensive holidays to British and German customers. The travel operator behind Thomson and First Choice holiday brands posted a 13 per cent rise in underlying operating profit to £555m for the year to 30 September driven by the growing popularity of [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 10 December 2013 December 9, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Home Secretary criticised for red tape Theresa May has been accused by cabinet colleagues of undermining the government’s pro-business agenda by refusing to cut red tape in the Home Office. The Home Secretary was sent a “scathing letter” late last month by Michael Fallon, the Conservative business minister, and Vince Cable, the Liberal [...]
Two heads for heights at Smith & Williamson December 8, 2013 The accountant and investment manager duo who are on the hunt for growth tell Marion Dakers about their long-term plans SMITH & Williamson (S&W) is keen to get away from its reputation as investment’s “best kept secret” – even if it’s a name the firm has used to describe its own services. From a quiet [...]
It’s time to break the Whitehall silo and put startup discipline into government December 3, 2013 THE CURSE of Norman Lamont makes politicians wary of mentioning the “green shoots” of recovery. But when the data show growth of 0.4 per cent, 0.7 per cent and 0.8 per cent in the first three quarters of 2013, it’s clear. The UK is off life support. Sure, the recovery is heavily consumption-led, with exports [...]
City A.M.’s bumper Autumn Statement preview December 3, 2013 As chancellor George Osborne gets set to unveil this year's Autumn statement on Thursday, we've pulled together all the expected announcements, and what others are hoping for. Ladbrokes have 11/5 odds on the speech to run for 45 to 50 minutes (it's scheduled to start at 11.15am). You'll get 6/4 odds on the speech running [...]
Greene King serves up healthy profits as sales rise December 3, 2013 Pub retailer Greene King has posted solid profits and rising sales for the six months to 13 October. The company recorded a rise in pre-tax profit of 5.7 per cent to £85.6m while total revenue rose 5.2 per cent to £595.4m. Strong growth in key areas such as food helped drive like-for-like retail sales up 3.5 [...]