State-backed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) confirmed it plans to press ahead with a flotation of its Direct Line insurance division in what could be the biggest listing on the London Stock Exchange in more than a year.
RBS, which is majority-owned by the government after a bailout during the 2008 financial crisis, was told to sell Britain’s biggest motor insurer by EU regulators as a condition for taking state aid.
“We believe it has a strong future as a standalone insurance group, continuing to serve its customers well while delivering attractive returns to investors,” RBS finance director Bruce Van Saun said in a statement yesterday.
Analysts have said that the initial public offering (IPO) could value Direct Line at more than ￡3 billion (US$4.8 billion), but the business may struggle to match that valuation in tough market conditions that have already scuppered a planned flotation by Germany’s third-biggest insurer Talanx.
Talanx abandoned its Frankfurt IPO on Wednesday, saying investors were demanding too big a discount on the company’s valuation relative to what its investment banking advisers had foreseen.
If RBS were to encounter a similar experience to Talanx, it would have the option of re-examining a straight sale or asking Brussels for an extension to the deadline. Under the EU directive, it must have sold more than 50 percent of its shares by the end of next year and its entire holding a year later.
RBS will market the offer to potential investors over the next few weeks and will be under political pressure to secure a good deal. UK taxpayers are sitting on a loss of more than ￡20 billion after Britain pumped ￡45 billion into the bank to secure its future.
Bain Capital and Blackstone had considered an offer for Direct Line, while Apax Partners, BC Partners and KKR also mulled bidding, Reuters reported in July.
Van Saun said last month RBS was planning a three-tranche sale — one this year, one next year and a final sale in 2014. RBS said yesterday it planned to sell at least 25 percent of its shares in the first tranche, in line with the minimum requirement under stock exchange rules.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.2 and NT$0.3 per liter respectively, after international crude oil prices increased last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week snapped a two-week losing streak as the geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine turned increasingly tense, CPC said in a statement. News that some oil production facilities in Alberta, Canada, were shut down due to wildfires and that US-Iran nuclear talks made no progress also helped push oil prices to a significant weekly gain, Formosa said
RSS