Aspect Insurance

'Wash & Go', the one stop trailer wash operation offered by GE’s TIP Trailer Services through four of its depots in the UK, is proving as popular as ever, with over 1000 washes already completed in the first two months of 2010.

Another pair of low-deck DAF XF510s tractors have joined the fleet of specialist entertainment industry transportation and logistics company Stardes of Sheffield to work on music tours around the UK and Europe.

The best of the Interlaken Trucking Festival from Martin on Biglorryblog.

Mike D Asks the question on Biglorryblog

Hermes, one of Europe’s leading home delivery specialists, has made substantial savings in its transport costs using optimisation software from Paragon Software Systems.

Average new car CO2 emissions fell by their biggest ever margin last year with the impact of recession and the Scrappage Incentive Scheme boosting the continued influence of technological advances made by vehicle manufacturers, according to the annual New Car CO2 Report released today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.

About 2,000 manufacturing jobs in the West Midlands have been safeguarded by production of the new Jaguar XJ, a car industry advisory group has said.

Toyota will today hit back at one of its most high-profile critics by staging a technical demonstration intended to rebut his claim to have uncovered a potentially dangerous flaw in the carmaker’s onboard electronic control systems.

Amidst the thousands of cars on display at the Geneva motor show there is one that stands out, if not for its looks than for its importance for the company that makes it. For the first time since 2003, BMW has redesigned its 5-series executive model range.

The single-model display at the Geneva motor show by electric motoring pioneer Tesla is swamped this year by a seemingly endless string of rival sportscar companies launching electric vehicles of their own.

The Pru's chief executive, Tidjane Thiam, dismisses critics of his takeover of AIG's Asian arm as 'eurocentric'

Tidjane Thiam, the chief executive of the Prudential, said this weekend he had embarked on a controversial $35bn (£23bn) takeover of the Asian assets of collapsed American group AIG in order to give something back to Britain.

Thiam, who was born in Ivory Coast and educated in France, also dismissed critics who claim the deal is too risky as "eurocentric".

He said: "I am very grateful to the UK. It has given me opportunities that I wouldn't get in France and I want to do something for the country."

The Pru is expected this week to obtain a dual listing of its shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange as well as in London. That move will fuel speculation the 160-year-old insurer may move its HQ or its chief executive's office to Asia. Thiam admitted he could not make a long-term pledge to keep his head office here. "At the moment we are committed to the UK and we are not saying positively that in 10 years we won't have our HQ here, we are just saying we don't know what might happen."

He downplayed speculation that he may seek to offload the insurer's UK business. He said: "I have always been very clear that the UK business is very important to us. We started here and used that to build an international vision that benefits the UK economy. Our name and identity is British; this is all good for the UK."

He denied it would have been better for the Pru to expand in Asia by growing its business organically. "We believe this is going to increase our growth potential significantly beyond that, because we will start from the number one position in seven markets."

He added: "I don't agree that it is risky – that is a eurocentric view of the world. Asian economies have very healthy balance sheets. It is the leveraged economies that are more risky."

His words contrast sharply with comments last week from Andrew Moss, chief executive of Thiam's former employer Aviva, who argued Europe was a better place for insurers to expand than Asia.

The Pru's share price dropped sharply after it announced the deal, which will involve a record £14bn issue of new shares. It closed at 520p, down from 602p, but Thiam was boosted by news that two sovereign wealth funds from Qatar and Singapore had agreed to back the capital raising.

There have been concerns that if the shares fall too far, investors will be reluctant to back the rights issue. Thiam said: "I'm sure there is a price at which it becomes uneconomic but I can't answer questions on that – it is not a game I want to engage in."

The Prudential's takeover of AIG's Asian arm will inevitably shift its centre of gravity away from its British operations

The Prudential's audacious bid to take over the Asian interests of failed US insurer AIG can be seen as a reversal of the tide of foreign sequestration of assets in the UK.

It is easy to see how Asia would seem much more exciting to its able young chief executive, Tidjane Thiam, than the UK, or Europe, where rival Aviva is pinning its hopes.

For the moment, the Prudential is committed to remaining a UK company but, long term, there must be a question mark as its centre of gravity shifts eastward.

Britain and, for that matter, its US operation, Jackson National Life Insurance, will become proportionately less important to the group.

It is sad to see how the once mighty insurance industry in this country has dwindled. Former big names have met sorry fates, including Pearl, which passed through several hands before being sold to Cayman Islands firm Liberty Acquisitions. Friends Provident was taken over by zombie fund operator Resolution.

Policyholders are powerless while their savings are passed around like parcels. At each turn financiers and advisers are taking a cut from a huge and undemocratic transfer of funds, nodded through by regulators without so much as giving policyholders a vote.

The business model for UK insurance savings has come adrift: one can only wish the Pru well, hope its Asian savers prosper and its UK customers escape the zombie curse.

Finally, the Prudential's share price bounces. Unfortunately, yesterday's gain was a mere 2.5% to 500p. The Pru is still down 17% since it announced on Monday its grand plan to pay $35.5bn (£23bn) for AIA to advance its ambitions in Asia.

Does 17% amount to a vote of no confidence in the deal? It's far too early to say that since Tidjane Thiam, the Pru's chief executive, has a full two months to woo his shareholders before he has to publish a prospectus. It is also true that there is nothing like the prospect of a gigantic rights issue to kill short-term demand for your shares. Even so, the fall might be twice as severe as the Pru's management would have hoped. This is starting to look serious.

So it should. The word in the investment banking world is that AIG had in mind a flotation value of $25bn to $27.5bn for AIA. If that is correct, it was adventurous for the Pru to pitch in at $35.5bn. So one way to think of the £3bn plunge in the Pru's valuation is as the market's calculation of the size of the overpayment for AIA but adding back the benefits of combining the two companies.

If the net figure at the end of April is still minus £3bn – as a 500p share price suggests – Thiam is not winning many plaudits. Many shareholders might prefer to call the whole thing off and, they would hope, see the Pru's share price return to last week's level of 600p.

It requires no genius to see that Asia is an attractive place to sell savings products. But Thiam has failed to explain why buying AIA is the best way to skin that cat. The Pru already has a very successful business in Asia. Concentrating on competing with a destabilised company such as AIA, and saving $1bn in bid costs in the process, looks a perfectly credible and lower-risk way to approach the Asian opportunity.

• Shares fall to 485p from pre-deal price of 602p
• Investors could withhold backing for rights issue

Plans by Prudential to spend £23bn buying the far eastern operations of US insurer AIG provoked a flight of investors today, pushing its share price down by more than 8%.

Shares in Prudential had fallen by 45p to 485p by 2pm, mirroring a similar fall yesterday. Before the deal was announced they were worth 602p.

Concern among investors centred on the massive finance deal needed to fund the purchase, including a record £14bn issue of new shares.

Investors were also worried that Prudential was overpaying for American International Assurance after a year in which the Hong Kong-based group suffered declining sales.

One investor said a share price below 500p would cause investors to think twice before supporting the rights issue. He said further falls would force the company to issue a larger number of shares to reach the needed £14bn, which would further dilute existing shareholdings.

Other investors pointed to the influence of hedge funds short-selling the stock. The company has yet to announce the price of discounted shares in the Pru to fund the deal, but they could be anywhere between 40% and 75% cheaper than its pre-deal high.

Short sellers, who bet on a falling share price, have a "one-way bet" in the event of a massive rights issue.

Prudential chief executive Tidjane Thiam, who described the deal as "transformational", is under pressure to show that the benefits of becoming one of the world's largest insurers is worth the £23bn price tag, and allows the company to enter new markets it was otherwise struggling to conquer.

Investors have also questioned the $1bn fees that will be paid to investment banks for brokering the deal.

AIA has 20 million customers and 350,000 agents across China, the Philippines and other countries in east and south-east Asia. It was caught up in the collapse of AIG in 2008, and was subsequently bailed out with $180bn (£120bn) of US government funds.

AIG is keen to offload AIA to help repay the Treasury loan. It signalled that a flotation in Hong Kong was its first route to raise funds, but abandoned the move when it received a bid from Prudential.

Prudential is looking to finance its deal for AIG's Asian assets with a $21bn cash call from investors