A round-up of today's business news in brief
Allianz profit more than triples in Q1
Allianz’s net profit more than tripled in the first quarter, as strong life and health insurance and asset management business outweighed big damage claims.
Europe’s biggest insurer posted net profit of €1.6 billion, compared with €424 million a year earlier when financial crisis fallout weighed.
Operating profit in life and health insurance and asset management more than doubled, but fell by more than a quarter in Allianz’s usual money spinner, property and casualty insurance, hurt by claims in Chile and Europe. – (Reuters)
Morgan Stanley may be investigated
US federal investigators are probing whether Morgan Stanley misled investors about mortgage derivative products it helped create and sometimes bet against, the Wall Street Journalsaid, citing people familiar with the matter.
Morgan Stanley chief executive James Gorman told media in Tokyo he had no knowledge of any federal investigation into his firm.
“We have not been contacted by the Justice Department about any transactions that were raised in the Wall Street Journal article,” Mr Gorman said. – (Bloomberg)
Zamano says trade hit by new rules
Mobile data services provider Zamano says trading has been hit by new regulations, particularly in the Irish market.
In a trading update, the company said regulations that took effect early this year had a greater than expected impact on its customer acquisition and retention. In addition to the Irish market, Zamano is also trading below expectations in Britain and Australia, it said.
As a result, the company’s board expects 2010 revenues and Ebitda to be “materially below” market expectation. The share price fell by two cents to 12 cents in Dublin yesterday.
Reliance of banks on European loans not in proportion to assets
Reliance of Greek and Irish banks on European Central Bank (ECB) loans is out of proportion to the size of their assets, according to Fitch Ratings.
Greek banks accounted for 6.6 per cent of the €749 billion the ECB lent to financial companies by the end of 2009, although they only held 1.6 per cent of the euro-zone’s banking assets, Fitch analysts reported.
Irish lenders took 12 per cent of ECB funding, compared to a 5.24 per cent share of the region’s bank assets. – (Bloomberg)
