The week's winners
R&SA up 3.2%
Windsor up 6.4%
The week's winners R&SA up 3.2%Windsor up 6.4%
The week's losersAlea down 6.9%Cox down 5.9%It's not quite time to uncork the champagne but Royal & SunAlliance (R&SA) investors can at least elicit a cheer. The company has convinced the FSA to relax its bite on how much it should invest to sustain its life operations.Last year R&SA feared it would have to fork out around £300m to pay for potential mis-selling claims of its annuity business and an extra £200m against future stock market fluctuations.Winning round one with the FSA and producing expected results in the first quarter of 2004 meant that R&SA's share price rose by 7.7% to 80p last week. The company also reported an encouraging combined operating ratio of 98.7%.R&SA could receive more good news, as several companies and financiers are understood to be looking at buying its closed life insurance business. These are understood to include South Africa's largest insurer Old Mutual and former Goldman Sachs banker Christopher Flowers. Benfield objected to its downgrade to 'neutral' from 'buy' by Merrill Lynch analysts. In a Merrill Lynch research document, Benfield argued that its share price reported one of the best performances in the sector. In fact, it outperformed the European insurance market by 14%. But Merrill stood its ground saying that in order for Benfield to retain its positive recommendation it would have to see a 20% upside.Finally, Kiln has acquired a 25% stake in South Africa's International Marine Insurance Managers. International Marine is an established player in the cargo and hull markets and will operate as an extension of Kiln's Marine and Specialist Risks Syndicate 510.
