Mr Benson said yesterday there were further buy-backs to come to reward investors. The company also raised its dividend 18 per cent to 4p, the first rise since the company floated four years ago. But at about 20 times 2005 earnings, it looks rather expensive given that most Continental European economies are far from stable Expansion in the US will also be a difficult feat. Worth holding, though, to see if Europe can build on its shoots of recovery.. Shares in Royal & SunAlliance, the UK insurer, fell almost 3.5 per cent yesterday, after the group announced that the implementation of new international accounting rules would cause it to reduce its net assets by around £400m.
However, he conceded that the size of the derivative reclassification was new news, which may have contributed to the fall in share price. “To be honest, I think the only difference between today and the day before is the absence of buyers in the market. There’s been some large buyers in the market supporting the share price over the past couple of weeks.”RSA shares have risen more than 10 per cent since the end of December, reaching a 12-month high of almost 91p last week. Bid rumours have surrounded the company over the past few weeks, with American International Group (AIG) having been touted as a potential buyer for the group. As yet, however, there have been no Stock Exchange announcements revealing any significant stake-building.Shares in the company recovered slightly to close at 84p yesterday, giving the group a market value of £2.4bn RSA is due to announce its 2004 results next month.
A subsequent presentation is scheduled for April, when the company will restate its results according to the new International Financial Reporting Standards.. The French car maker Peugeot Citroen failed to lift the cloud hanging over its Ryton plant in Coventry yesterday as it warned that rising raw material costs would bite into profits this year. Peugeot had originally planned to build the successor to the 206 at Ryton. But by the time Brussels finally gave its approval last September to a £14.4m grant from the UK Government to support the investment, Peugeot had decided to build the car elsewhere.The plan now is to continue production of the 206 at Ryton for as long as there is demand. But beyond that there is no certainty of the plant’s survival and no new model earmarked for it.Peugeot axed 700 jobs at Ryton last year and scrapped the plant’s fourth shift, blaming falling demand for the 206 from Continental Europe.
But the OFT said yesterday it would not be recommending a block exemption for the industry’s arrangements. It said that in its opinion, exclusive supply arrangements for newspapers and magazines were acceptable but that for magazines “absolute territorial protection” which stops wholesalers filling unsolicited orders was anti-competitive.”The OFT has found that this is likely to be anti-competitive and is unlikely to be necessary for the efficient functioning of the distribution system for magazines,” it said.Ian Locks, the chief executive of the Periodical Publishers Association, said: “We note the OFT has clearly recognised there are benefits to the system of exclusive wholesaler territories. He also said the company now had no plans to build any new stations in the UK unless it could secure long-term supply contracts.. Magazine and newspaper wholesalers have been dealt a blow by the Office of Fair Trading, which has decided that some of the industry’s supply arrangements are likely to be anti-competitive and risk falling foul of the Competition Act. Folz said he believed production of the 206 could continue for “quite a long time” but refused to put a date on it.
