Aviva chief Mark Wilson pushed out six years after turning around ‘couch potato’. The boss of FTSE 100 insurer Aviva (AV.) will pick up £6m in pay and benefits after being abruptly ousted by the board. Mark Wilson, who once claimed he had inherited a lazy “couch potato” when he took on the top job in 2013, was informed of the decision on Monday on what sources described as a “difficult day”. Sir Adrian Montague, currently non-executive chairman, will assume executive responsibilities until a successor is found. A person close to the board’s thinking said they wanted someone inside the insurance sector. Sir Adrian said that Mr Wilson was leaving the company, which provides life insurance, general insurance, health insurance and asset management to 33m customers, in a stronger state than when he joined.
The owner of Patisserie Holdings (CAKE) is preparing to reveal details of financial irregularities worth millions of pounds that have been discovered. A black hole in the accounts of Patisserie Holdings could be worth £20m or more, according to a Sky News report that cites an anonymous source. Directors have found “a series of a apparent financial irregularities” and will release more information today, according to the source. The source also said the company is likely to see its shares suspended and finance director Chris Marsh, could be suspended or temporarily forced to step aside during an investigation into the missing funds.
Greggs seeks to tackle allergy labels after Pret a Manger deaths. Bakery chain Greggs (GRG) is looking to ‘ramp up’ allergy labelling after its rival Pret a Manger faced national scrutiny last week following the deaths of two customers. Roger Whiteside, chief executive of Greggs, said the company was fully aware of the extent of the risks and that it wanted to ensure the same thing never happens at Greggs. It reinforced that customers with allergies should check the company website or ask shop staff for nutritional information, particularly as “the bulk of what [Gregg’s] sells is not in packets at all”. “How do you put an allergy label on a sausage roll?” said Mr Whiteside. “In that sense we are more like a restaurant than we are a conventional retailer because we freshly prepare the food on the premise.”
Paddy Power Betfair hit as Ireland doubles gambling tax. More than £250m was wiped off the value of FTSE 100 bookie after the Irish Government announced plans to double betting duties. Finance minister Paschal Donohoe said Irish turnover tax will rise from 1% to 2% for both retail and online bets from next year. Duties levied on gambling exchanges – where bookmakers match wagers between customers – will increase from 15% to 25%. Irish gambling leaders warned the tax hike would “kill the industry”. Paddy Power Betfair, the largest operator across the Irish Sea, estimated this would increase its annual betting duty bill by £20m. Shares fell by 5%. Fierce rivals GVC Holdings (GVC), the owner of Ladbrokes Coral, and William Hill (WMH) were left largely unscathed due to a much smaller footprint in Ireland.
ITV abandons HQ on London’s South Bank amid strategy overhaul. ITV (ITV) has put its headquarters on London’s South Bank up for sale, scrapping plans to move back in after a now-shelved five-year redevelopment programme. The broadcaster has already vacated the building, which it has inhabited for more than 40 years, and now plans to stay put in what were meant to be temporary offices in Holborn, another area of the capital. It will also continue to use studio space at the BBC’s former headquarters Television Centre in White City, west London.
Shell not ‘going soft’ on fossil fuel future, says boss. Royal Dutch Shell ‘B’ (RDSB) may be spending billions of dollars on renewable energy and and electric cars, but the oil major is not straying far from its fossil fuel roots just yet. The energy giant’s chief executive Ben Van Beurden has warned the industry not to be swayed by the flurry of headlines marking Shell’s steps towards cleaner energy. “Even headlines that are true can be misleading,” he told delegates at a London conference. “They might even make people think we have gone soft on the future of oil and gas. If they did think that, they would be wrong,” he said.
Royal Mail (RMG) fell below its IPO price for the first time after City scribblers turned up the heat on the parcel deliverer with another slew of downgrades. City analysts put the boot in after the share price plunged by 29% in the wake of last week’s profit warning, dragging Royal Mail shares below 330p for the first time. HSBC analyst Edward Stanford described the company’s stagnant productivity as “disturbing” and said a root cause of the missed cost savings target “appears to be poor staff morale in the wake of a bruising period for industrial relations”. RBC’s Damian Brewer warned clients in a downgrade to “underperform” that its weakened share price still did not reflect the “amplified profit risks”.
Sage Group (SGE) tumbled to a three-year low after Barclays warned that it had been left leaderless at a “crucial stage” in its turnaround. Stephen Kelly departed as boss from Britain’s biggest listed tech firm in August after his overhaul faltered. Barclays said the new chief executive is “very likely” to ramp up investment and could also make “expensive” deals to kick-start the recovery.
ASOS (ASC) slumped 256p to £51.48 after industry data showed online non-food sales growth stuttering to its lowest level since January. Growth pulled back to 5.4% last month compared to 10.7% in September 2017, the British Retail Consortium’s figures indicated. Following German rival Zalando’s recent profit warning, more signs of slowing online sales dragged Asos to a 20-month low ahead of its full-year results next week.
Hargreaves Services (HSP) fell 3p to £20.42 after admitting that it could be impacted by UK-based miner Wolf Minerals Limited (WLFE) financial woes. Wolf, which slumped a further 0.4p to 1.4p, admitted yesterday that it has just two days of last-gasp talks to secure funding from stakeholders.
Schroders (SDR) rallied 66p to £30.43 after Berenberg labelled the City fund giant “uncharacteristically exciting” amid talks with Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) over a wealth-management tie-up.
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) has agreed to pay $765m (£583m) to settle claims connected to toxic derivatives it sold prior to the financial crisis that rocked global markets in 2007. In a statement announcing the deal, the Department of Justice said that federally-insured financial institutions and others suffered “major losses” from investing in Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) that were issued and underwritten by the lender. “HSBC made choices that hurt people and abused their trust,” said Bob Troyer, US Attorney for the District of Colorado. “HSBC chose to use a due diligence process it knew from the start didn’t work. It chose to put lots of defective mortgages into its deals. When HSBC saw problems, it chose to rush those deals out the door.”
BP (BP.) will be able to move ahead with a long-awaited sale of a clutch of its North Sea gas fields after winning a crucial waiver from US authorities to allow the deal to go ahead. US financial sanctions on Iran had threatened to derail the £300m sale to Serica Energy because Iran’s state-owned oil producer IOC owns a stake in one of the North Sea fields included in the package. The US has granted an exemption that means all revenues from the field that are owed to IOC will now be held in escrow for as long as US sanctions apply.
The former Bank of England economist who took the reins of City broker Cenkos Securities (CNKS) last summer has left the firm after its profits crashed 90%. Anthony Hotson, an academic in financial history who has taught at Cambridge and Oxford universities, joined the broker last August, but will now step down from the board at the end of October. The announcement came weeks after the broker, known for making £30m for its role in the AA’s float in 2014, said profits had fallen from £4.6m to £500,000 in the six months to June after it was hit by new rules and delayed deals.
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