The Prudential, the second largest life insurance provider in the UK, has seen the Peoples Bank of China take a one percent stake in the company, worth GBP130 million.
The move puts the Chinese bank into the top 25 of institutional investors in the Prudential, though there is no feeling that the holding is leading up to a takeover bid. The Chinese bank invests in many different businesses and a one percent holding is not uncommon. Speculation came because of the Prudential developing the Asian market though the management at the insurer welcomes the investment.
Such is the activity of the Prudential in Asia that their growth for the first half of the year was 14 percent, a remarkable step forwards.
It has been suggested that swapping from a car to a motorbike will make sense financially, something that is on the minds of many people at the moment.
The PR man from AA Insurance commented that many people are switching to smaller vehicles already, driven by both financial and environmental motives. Taking the step to a motorcycle helps in both these areas even more than a smaller car. He noted that they are easy to park, economical to run and also cheaper to insure.
There are currently just over 1.2 million motorbikes registered in the UK, though perhaps that figure is going to rise based on what the man from AA Insurance has to say.
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Specialist insurance provider Hiscox as selected Michael Gould to be the new Chief Operating Officer, the role commencing on June 9.
Mr Gould leaves his post at Aon to go to Hiscox, where he spent 5 years, latterly as Corporate Division CEO. He also has a background in the credit card market, with a number of posts held at Amex where he worked for 14 years.
As Chief Operating Officer at Hiscox Mr Gould will take responsibility for Operations, IT and Property Services across the group, reporting directly to the CEO. Hiscox insurance will be part of the remit, though only as part of the whole group organisation.
