Three things you need to know in the financial markets this morning from investment writer, Tony Cross.
Hiscox
The specialist insurer Hiscox [LON:HSX] has published its latest trading update this morning, covering the first nine months of the year. Whilst premiums are up 7.3% on a constant currency basis, it’s not all good news. A series of catastrophic storms means that the company will significantly exceed its budget for this category of claim, whilst profit commissions are expected to be $25m lower than forecast at the year end. This will have an impact in year-end figures, although policyholders will presumably be left with rising premiums in the future to ensure profitability is maintained.
Just Eat
There’s a development on the proposed merger between Just Eat [LON:JE] and Takeaway.com out this morning, with the latter having made a technical change to the approach, in a bid to increase the certainty of the deal completing. The idea is that such a deal is better than the cash offer which has been tabled to Prosus and Just Eat’s board are also recommending the Takeaway.com offer, but presumably the question is now whether this flushes out an even better price.
IAG
News of an acquisition by British Airways’ owner IAG [LON:IAG] has emerged this morning. They are spending EUR 1 billion on the privately owned Madrid-based Air Europa, an airline with a fleet of 66 planes and which carried 11.8 million passengers last year. This increases IAG’s coverage of the Latin American market and turns Madrid into a hub to rival other major airports across Europe.
