How the market is responding to the move that will be Aviva's loss and Towergate's gain
The excitement about yesterday’s Towergate/Aviva announcements spilled over into Friday. Market observers, executives and journalists tried to quantify Towergate’s gain from hiring Mark Hodges and Aviva’s loss for letting him slip through its fingers.
Despite Aviva securing Friends’ Life’s Trevor Matthews to replace Hodges as UK chief executive. Aviva’s shareholders seem to have been slightly shaken by Hodges’ departure – in particular the hole he has left in the company’s board. They are calling for crisis talks, according to news reports.
Aviva is still trying to find a new chairman to replace Lord Sharman, and has only just lost life boss Toby Strauss, who left to fill the vacancy left by Archie Kane at Lloyds Banking Group in March.
The wider investor community are equally jarred by the news, if Aviva’s stock price is anything to go by. At the time of writing, Aviva’s stock was trading at 425.10p, down from yesterday’s close of 427.90p.
Aviva’s loss is clearly Towergate’s gain, judging by our interview with chairman Alistair Lyons. Lyons is clearly pleased to have bagged someone with Hodges’ experience, and who he feels will be a good fit for the firm.
Hodges himself may have considerable reason to be pleased with his new appointment, as revealed in our exclusive analysis, particularly if he is able to steer the company towards a successful flotation.
Hodges will no doubt also be heartened to learn that outgoing Towergate chief Andy Homer, who will remain as a non-executive director, will leave him to get on with the job rather than watching Hodges run the company over his shoulder.
Terra Firma states the obvious
In a strange twist to Chaucer’s tale, Guy Hands’ private equity firm Terra Firma announced yesterday that it would not be making an offer for the Lloyd’s insurer, even though the company looks almost certain to be acquired by US insurance group Hanover.
Terra Firma’s revelation might look like an unnecessary statement of the obvious in the circumstances, but apparently the announcement was made at the behest of the UK Panel on Takeovers and Mergers.
Ben Dyson is group finance editor.
