The week's winners
Wellington Underwriting up 4%
Brit up 2%
The week's winners Wellington Underwriting up 4%Brit up 2%
The week's losersJardine Lloyd Thompson down 10.3%Aviva down 4%Admiral's flotation couild be off. Market speculation this week says there are talks about a trade sale instead. Speculation centres on Norwich Union (NU), First Alternative and Cox. One source close to Admiral said: "Admiral would not rule out a trade sale as a possibility in the future." NU, First Alternative and Cox all declined to comment. Munich Re, which holds around 18% of the business said, that it would stick to its current stake and not buy the rest of Admiral. An Admiral spokesman said the company still intended to float in the Autumn of 2004.Royal & SunAlliance (R&SA) has finally managed to sell Codan. SEB Trygg Liv bought R&SA's Danish life arm for around £173m in cash. Now the troubled company can finally concentrate on its general insurance business and on producing results for its shareholders. But alas, the road is paved with difficulty. Last week R&SA was dealt a heavy blow as UBS downgraded its stock from 'neutral' to 'reduce'. It is understood that the downgrade is a result of last week's 9% rally of R&SA shares following the disclosure of its talks about selling the UK life business. Stockbroker UBS awarded the same treatment to Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT), downgrading its stock from 'neutral' to 'reduce' in the same week. UBS had concerns that its risk solutions division may be struggling.In its defence, JLT reiterated the comments made in its full year results and AGM statement that its risk solutions business would be impacted by the weakness of the dollar and the changing reinsurance market. Following the announcement, JLT's shares fell 10% to 435.5p on Friday. This week the share price hasn't fared any better, dropping to 432.25p.
