Prudential agrees to pay $231 million if AIG deal breaks down
Britain's Prudential Plc has agreed to pay $104 million per month if the deal to acquire the Asian unit of American International Group does not close by August 31 along with a termination fees of $231 million.
According to a filing with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Prudential has agreed to pay 0.4 percent, of the cash consideration outstanding per month from September 1 to American International Assurance incase the deal breaks down.
Europe has more growth potential than Asia: says Aviva CEO
The Prudential is spending billions on acquiring AIA to become a big player in the Asian insurance market, but its rival Aviva shrugged off Prudential’s growth plans, saying it would focus on Europe rather than Asia.
Britain's second-largest insurer Aviva’s chief executive Andrew Moss has described Prudential’s planned takeover of AIA for $35.5 billion as "audacious".
Mr. Moss added that European insurance market would grow faster than Asian.
AIG is paid for delaying sale of Asian arm
Troubled US insurer American International Group, which agreed to sell its Asian life insurance unit AIA to Prudential for $35.5 billion, benefited a lot for showing patience.
Earlier in 2008 also, AIG had put AIA for auction, but it rolled back its plans and decided to wait because it failed to find any suitable buyer as markets were down due to economic slump.
At that time AIG was getting nearly half of what Prudential is paying now for its Asian business.
AIG to sell Asian arm to Prudential for $35.5bn
US insurance giant American International Group has reportedly agreed to sell its Asian life insurance unit AIA to British insurer Prudential in a deal worth around $35.5 billion.
People familiar with the matter said that the deal had already been signed off by the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department.
Troubled AIG is selling off some of its assets to repay $182.3 billion in taxpayers’ money, which was pumped into the insurer by the Government to bail it out at the peak of financial crisis in 2008.
Prudential in talks to buy AIG’s Asian arm
British insurer Prudential PLC is pursuing discussions to buy the Asian life-insurance operations of the American International Group, media reports suggested.
People familiar with the matter informed that the transaction could be valued at more than $25 billion and the British insurer could go for a share issue to fund the possible deal.
Prudential operates chiefly in the US, England and Asian countries such as China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Korea and the like.
Pru's With-Profits Fund Returns 18.7% in 2009
Prudential's with-profits fund regained 18.7 per cent in 2009, three times more than Aviva's with-profits fund, which returned 6 per cent.
However, Aviva says Prudential's strong results has not filtered through to customers with a 10 year bond return of 4 per cent, contrasted with Aviva's 6.4 per cent payout last year.
The Pru's giant £61 billion with-profits fund grabbed up an 18.7 per cent return before tax supported by 30 per cent return in the FTSE all share index.
RSA posts fall in pre-tax profit; predicts excellent 2010
British insurer RSA announced on Thursday that it suffered a fall of 27 per cent in pre-tax profit in 2009, but added that it remained confident of delivering excellent results in future.
RSA said it pocketed a pre-tax profit of 554 million pounds, down from 759 million pounds in 2008.
Gross written premiums jumped from 7.27 billion pounds in 2008 to 7.74 billion pounds last year, while net written premiums climbed 4 per cent to 6.74 billion pounds.
Insurer Legal & General Ahead of its Own Fixed Targets
Insurer Legal & General produced more than £650m of net cash from its UK business last year, beating estimates for about £50m. It increased UK net cash two times from what was generated in 2009, going ahead of its own fixed targets.
"Ongoing changes to product mix and design, cost reductions, favorable pricing conditions in the annuity market and substantial growth in assets under management have delivered results well ahead of expectations", said Chief Executive Tim Breedon.
L&G annuity sales climb 13% over 2009
Insurance giant Legal & General has reported an increase of 13 per cent in individual annuity sales over the previous year.
L&G said its individual annuity sales jumped to £98 million during 2009 as compared with £87 million in 2008.
Company’s gross new business from corporate pensions clients stood at £29 billion, up from £27.6 billion in the previous year.
However, individual pension sales slipped year-on-year 17 per cent to settle at £272 million over the previous year.
Health insurance Unit Plans Layoff
Health insurer WellPoint Inc. will eliminate 111 claims-processing jobs in Green Bay. The state Department of Workforce Development says that the job cuts are expected to begin in early April and be completed by the end of June.
The department will move the work to help the affected employees of the WellPoint subsidiary, Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield. WellPoint Inc. spokesman Scott Larrivee said that Wellpoint Inc. is moving the work to Indianapolis in an effort to lower overall administrative costs.
15% Drop in Earnings Posted by Aetna, Cites Medical Costs as Reason
Indianapolis - Aetna Inc. officially reported that its fourth-quarter earnings for the past year plunged by 15% as the company continued to struggle with rapidly rising medical costs that effectively managed to hurt performance all throughout 2009.
On Friday, the Hartford, Conn. based health insurer revealed that medical costs, which are the company's largest expense, hiked by 14% to $6.1 Billion in the three months up-to December 31. The hurt through this, however, was somewhat offset by a 9% rise in premiums.
Standard Life reports better-than-expected sales
Edinburgh-based Standard Life has reported better-than-expected sales of insurance and pension products in 2009 and the insurer expects the momentum to continue in 2010.
Standard Life said its life and pension sales in 2009 stood at 14.7 billion pounds, beating market expectations by 1 billion pounds. However, the figure was 7 per cent down from 2008.
Standard Life cuts endowment payouts
Standard Life has announced that ninety-seven per cent of its endowment policies would not pay off customers' loans, in a move that shocked investors.
However, Standard Life said the figure showed that a slightly better than last year’s figure of 98 per cent.
An individual who paid 50 pounds per month into a 25-year mortgage endowment would obtain a pay out of 26,869 pounds as compared with 31,066 pounds in the previous year, representing a decline of 13.5 per cent.
Standard Life Fined £2.45m for Publishing Deceitful Information
The giant pension provider Standard Life has been fined £2.45m by the Financial Services Authority for publishing deceitful information about one of its investment funds.
The City watchdog reveal the firm was found guilty of "serious systems and controls failings" that caused its investors receiving marketing material claiming its Pension Sterling Fund was a low- risk cash fund suitable for people who were approaching retirement.
Insurance giant Aviva to freeze regular bonus rates
A majority of Aviva’s 2.3 million with-profits customers will see their regular bonus rates frozen this year.
The Insurance giant said that the regular bonuses paid on unitized life and pension policies would remain at 2.75 per cent and 3.25 per cent respectively.
However, Aviva added that new business with-profits income rates would be slashed from 3.25 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
Bonuses on ex-CGNU policies have been hacked by 0.5 per cent with a view to bring payouts in line with the actual value of the fund.
Regular Bonus Rates to be Frozen by Aviva for With-Profits Customers
Over a thousand with-profit customers with Aviva will witness a freezing in their regular bonus rates, and returns on long-term investments as well have managed to steadily decline over the past
12 months.
As shared by the insurer, which currently has estimated 2.1 million with-profits policyholders, the majority of the company's bonus rates would be maintained at existing levels, a sign of the volatility across the markets over the past 2 years.
Returns on investments, on the other hand, have fallen over the 2 years.
UCF to Support Mandatory Health Insurance for Students
Students should remember that health insurance coverage is a vital component of the international study experience. Looking at this, UCF will stand up to back a proposal that would require students to purchase health insurance if the rest of the state supports it as well.
Maribeth Ehasz, vice president of Student Development and Enrolment Services at UCF, said that the State Legislature had OPPAGA, a state-wide research group, study the issue of mandatory health insurance.
UK Prudential buys Singapore's UOB’s life insurance unit
British insurer Prudential Plc announced on Wednesday that it would buy Singapore's United Overseas Bank's life insurance unit for S$428 million (equivalent to $307 million), in a move that will help it expand in the region.
Prudential will also enter 12-year agreement with UOB to sell life, health and accident insurance through bank's branches in Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.
Prudential's group CEO Tidjane Thiam said that the deal would boost their existence in some of the most dynamic economies in Asia.
Aviva acquires US stock fund manager River Road
Aviva Plc, the British insurance company, announced on Tuesday that it would acquire stock fund manager River Road Asset Management, in a move that will boost Aviva’s operations further in the United States.
However, Aviva did not disclose what it would pay for the Kentucky-based River Road, which possessed assets worth $6 billion at the end of 2008.
Commenting on the deal, Aviva Investors’ CEO Alain Dromer said, “In River Road, we have found a top-quality equity management business with an impressive track record.”
Insurer Aviva Acquires U.S. Asset Manager
Aviva has acquired a fund manager in the United States. The British insurer has bought the United States fund manager, River Road Asset Management for a masked amount.
In 2006, this insurer vastly expanded its U. S. presence by buying insurer AmerUs Group Co., which is now rebranded as Aviva USA.
Aviva is dreaming to expand in fast-growing Asian and U. S. markets and win more investment management business from institutional investors in US, for which it has acquired this US fund manager.
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