ALEX BRUMMER: Private equity interest in insurance could be beneficial for policyholders if returns are improved Across the Atlantic there is increasing regulatory concern over the way in which private equity firms have swept up £286billion of insurance companies New private equity owners have been switching out of traditional holdings of low-yield government bonds into … Read more
JEFF PRESTRIDGE: We were right about insurance companies… loyalty really does matter By Jeff Prestridge for The Mail on Sunday Published: 22:28 BST, 29 May 2021 | Updated: 23:09 BST, 29 May 2021 It’s been a tortuous journey, but at long last the City regulator has acted to stop loyal customers being exploited by greedy … Read more
MAGGIE PAGANO: Many reasons why it is that private equity firms are leading the charge in takeover activity – but tax breaks are by far the biggest catalyst By Maggie Pagano For The Daily Mail Published: 21:50 BST, 28 May 2021 | Updated: 21:55 BST, 28 May 2021 Over the last week, the Daily Mail … Read more
Often on Monday mornings, listeners to Radio 4’s flagship Today show wake to the withering comments of David Cumming, chief investment officer of insurer Aviva, which has £334million of funds under management. In his latest intervention, the investment panjandrum turned his fire on Emma Walmsley, warning that the ‘jury is still out’ on the Glaxosmithkline … Read more
Private equity pioneers KKR, the original ‘Barbarians at the Gate,’ want stakeholders to believe they are doing them a huge favour by offering £2billion for British infrastructure giant John Laing. As with so many recent private equity deals for FTSE 250 companies, the premium to the current share price of 33 per cent looks generous. … Read more
After more than a year cooped up in a first-floor flat, my fiance and I would like nothing more than to move somewhere bigger, with precious outdoor space. But until the property market simmers down, we’re staying put. Usually I take what estate agents say with a large grain of salt, as it’s in their … Read more
Dame Emma Walmsley may just have got the shot in the arm she needs to keep critics at bay. After a couple of false starts, Britain’s GSK, where she is chief executive, and Sanofi of France are confident their Covid-19 vaccine candidate will be ready for approval by regulators and available to patients by the … Read more
ALEX BRUMMER: By leaving private equity and overseas buyers the chance to do their worst behind closed doors, investors wash hands of responsibility The UK’s corporate landscape is littered with the victims of debt-fuelled private equity predators The objective is rarely honourable – it is to break-up the enterprises and sell them on piece by … Read more
HAMISH MCRAE: None of us know whether the hump in inflation is just that – a hump – or whether it is becoming embedded By Hamish Mcrae, Financial Mail On Sunday Published: 21:50 BST, 15 May 2021 | Updated: 21:50 BST, 15 May 2021 If you go out for a drink or a meal this … Read more
ALEX BRUMMER: What is remarkable about Greensill-Gupta scandal is how little attention was paid by Cameron and regulators to warnings flashing red By Alex Brummer for the Daily Mail Published: 21:50 BST, 14 May 2021 | Updated: 22:14 BST, 14 May 2021 Anyone tuning into David Cameron’s less than riveting testimony before the Treasury Select … Read more