AN EASY way to revive a flagging dinner party is to ask people to name their choice of the greatest crime show. Is it “The Wire”, with its intricate portrait of Baltimore’s underworld? Or “The Sopranos”? Or perhaps “Breaking Bad”? Now there is a new contender for the prize—“Gomorrah”, a drama about a collection of […]
Life insurer Phoenix Group scouting for deals to bulk up post Brexit
Phoenix Group Holdings, Britain’s largest owner of life assurance funds closed to new customers, is scouting for acquisitions to help gain scale in a challenging, low interest rate environment after Brexit, its chief executive said. Regulatory changes and rock bottom interest rates had ramped up pressure on industry players to deal with their legacy books, leading many […]
Phoenix to ditch Cayman Islands for the UK, as they continue to push for £250m savings following Axa Wealth and SunLife deals
Closed book pension provider Phoenix Group plans to ditch its Cayman Island holding company for the UK. Since 2009 the main holding company for the life company consolidator has been registered in the Cayman Islands and domiciled in Jersey. In results for the six months to 30 June published this morning, Phoenix said it would end this […]
Phoenix Group half-year results and plans for further acquisitions
Phoenix Group has reported £147m worth of cash generation during the first half – up from £110m during the same period last year – putting it on track to achieve its full year targets. The closed life fund consolidator’s results for the six months ended 30 June reiterated this goal of reaching £350m to £450m […]
Royal London chief Phil Loney: ‘I wouldn’t have paid £140m for Cofounds’
Royal London chief executive Phil Loney has said he would not have paid the £140 million figure for the Cofunds platform and indicated it would be ‘very challenging’ for Aegon to migrate the platform. Earlier this month Aegon agreed to buy Cofunds from Legal & General (L&G) in a deal worth £140 million. As of 30 June […]
Royal London boosted by ‘flight to quality’ in pensions business
Royal London has said it has benefited from advisers switching employers to its auto-enrolment service as its group pensions business was up 66% for the first six months of 2016. For the six months to 30 June, Royal London’s group pensions new business was £1.9 billion, up 66% from the same period last year. This increase […]
Direct Line abandons plan to offload part of its pension scheme
Direct Line has abandoned the potential offload of part of its pension scheme, following the conclusion of an internal review. It was part of a defined benefit (DB) scheme — in which monthly payouts are linked to an employee’s final salary — going back to when the insurer was wholly owned by the Royal Bank […]
Icahn Sees ‘Eye-to-Eye’ With AIG’s Chief After $3.4 Billion Deal
Carl Icahn, who won representation to the board of American International Group Inc. after threatening a proxy battle, said he’s warming to the approach of the insurer’s chief executive officer. “Peter Hancock and I don’t see eye-to-eye on everything, but I really think that he and I see eye-to-eye on what they should be doing […]
A year on from the pension reforms, have we all bought Lamborghinis?
Congratulations in order? Yes said experts, but a minority could still be in trouble Only a fraction of savers raided pension war-chests proving that Britons are not nearly as weak-willed as was feared when pension rules were relaxed a year ago. Reporting on the first anniversary of the “Freedom and Choice” reforms, the Association of British […]
AIG Set to Sell Mortgage Guarantor to Arch for $3.4bn
American International Group Inc. agreed to sell mortgage insurer United Guaranty Corp. to Arch Capital Group Ltd. as Chief Executive Officer Peter Hancock works to simplify his company and free up capital to return to shareholders. The deal is valued at $3.4 billion including $2.2 billion in cash and the rest in Arch securities, New […]