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Key highlights (on constant exchange rate basis): •IFRS operating profit of £3,186 million, up 14%. •Underlying free surplus generation (after investment in new business) of £2,579 million, up 9%. Net cash remittances from increased by 11% to £1,482 million. •IFRS shareholders funds of £11.8 billion, up 22%. •Insurance Groups Directive (IGD) capital surplus estimated at £4.7 billion; solvency requirements covered 2.4 times. •Annual premium equivalent (APE) sales increased by 12% to £4,650 million. •Full year dividend increased by 10% to 36.93 pence per share. A progressive dividend policy is maintained with medium term target dividend cover of around two times. Geographic/divisional performance Prudential operates four main business units. The UK Life business, which includes the sale of with-profits policies and annuities, the asset management business, which includes M&G in the UK and Eastspring Investments in Asia. In the US, Jackson National is primarily focused on the sales on variable annuities and other retirement products, whilst Asia Life sells a range of insurance policies in South East Asia. The performance of each of these business units is summarised below: UK Life: IFRS operating profit rose 7% to £752 million despite a 49% decline in sales of individual annuities as a result of after major changes to the UK's pensions regime were announced in the last Budget. This was more than offset by a 34% increase in with-profits bond sales and a strong rise in bulk annuity sales to defined benefit pension schemes. Asset management: M&G IFRS operating profit rose 13% to £446 million and cash remitted increased by a record 21% to £285 million. Continued net fund inflows and generally positive market movements saw M&G's total funds under management rise by 8% to £264 billion. Eastspring's total funds under management hit a record £77.3 billion, up 28% on the prior year. Jackson Life: Jackson's life IFRS operating profit grew 21% (15% on an actual exchange rate basis) to £1,431 million and cash remittances grew by 41% to a record £415 million. This was driven by a 10% increase in total variable annuity sales to £1,401 million. Asia: Asia delivered results, described by the Pru as "excellent across all metrics" during 2014. IFRS operating profit of £1,140 million was up 17% over 2013 (6% on actual exchange rate basis) and free surplus generation increased 15% to £592 million (3% on actual exchange rate basis). Net cash remittances were £400 million, in line with 2013 and the group produced £1,162 million of new business profit, 13% higher than in 2013 Change of CEO: Prudential today announced that Tidjane Thiam, Group Chief Executive, will step down later this year to join Credit Suisse as CEO. The group has identified a successor and expects to be able to announce the new

The UK's Lloyds Banking Group is selling one of the country's most popular property price trackers, the Halifax House Price Index to global financial data provider Markit. Lloyds acquired the tracker when it was forced to buy out HBoS after the UK's banking crisis. The index has been published monthly since 1983 and is widely viewed as a reliable gauge of house price performance in Britain. No value was disclosed for the deal between Lloyds and Markit. As part of the transaction, Markit will acquire the index and all associated intellectual property. Halifax will continue publishing data under Markit, who will also become the index administrator. The index name and methodology will remain unchanged when the transaction completes, which is expected later this year. Markit said it will calculate and administer the Halifax House Price Index in compliance with the Iosco Principles for Financial Benchmarks, while Lloyds will be the submitter to the Halifax House Price Index in compliance with the same principles.

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Verisk Analytics, the US data analytics provider has snapped up the UK's energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie for £1.85bn, obstructing the company's planned £2bn initial public offering. Nasdaq-listed Verisk said it had agreed to buy Scottish based WoodMac from San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman. The deal comes after recent interest in WoodMac by financial data provider McGraw Hill Financial, owner of S&P, who submitted a takeover offer at around £1.5bn. WoodMac however rejected the offer, saying it wants more cash for a takeover otherwise it would float the company's stock on the market. Energy consultancies are in demand as eroding commodity prices force energy companies to seek out services that offer cost effective solutions to deal with challenging market conditions.

5 years from now hopefully with a Market Cap. approaching £75-100m and between 150-200 technology acquisitions and 15-20 of them having been commercialised contributing to a substantial recurring revenue stream. Mature Competitor with an incubator model: IP Group: IP Group said it plans to raise capital to fund expansion as it announced the promotion of Mike Humphrey to the role of chairman. The company, which develops intellectual property-based businesses through university partnerships, is issuing more than 56.8m in shares to raise about £128m. The issue price represents a 6.6% discount to the closing price of 240p per share on 9 March. The group said the capital raising will support investment in the current portfolio and in new opportunities in the UK and the US. At the same time, IP revealed Humphrey will become the group's chairman on 24 March following the announcement last October that Bruce Smith will be stepping down. Humphrey joined the IP Group board in 2011 when he was appointed senior independent director before becoming chairman of the remuneration committee in 2014. Chief executive Alan Aubrey said: "I am delighted that Mike has agreed to take over as chairman. He has made a significant contribution to the board since he joined over three years ago and I look forward to continuing to work with him as the group seeks to achieve its objectives."

With falling profits leaving the pay-out looking abnormally high versus free cash flow, we think the chances of a dividend cut are now greater than 50pc Exane BNP Paribas said that while a capital raise at Standard Chartered was now unlikely, a dividend cut was not.

WPP Plc (WPP.L) Announced that it has agreed to acquire a minority stake in FlowNetwork, a new, Swedish, over-the-top television service, delivering its programmes via the internet, which supplies Sweden's regional newspapers with technology and content.

esure Group Plc (ESUR.L) Announced, in its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2014, that gross written premiums was £517.80 million, compared with £535.80 million reported in the previous year. Its profit before tax was £103.30 million, compared with £118.40 million in the last year. Its basic EPS stood at 19.84p, compared with 4.57p posted in the prior year. An interim dividend of 5.1p/share (£21.3 million) was declared by the board of directors on 1 August 2014 (2013: interim dividend 2.5p/share, £10.4 million).

Goldman Sachs warns oil price will fall again: Oil prices could fall again, reversing the rebound rally the commodity has experienced in recent weeks, Goldman Sachs has warned.

Doubts of Holcim merger hits Irish firm’s share price: Shares in Irish building supplies company CRH plummeted amid reports that a merger between Swiss cement maker Holcim and its French counterpart Lafarge could fall apart.

Former Scottish Ballet home acquired in £12 million swoop: A building that was once the home of Scottish Ballet has changed hands in a deal that will lead to the creation of a 281-bed student accommodation facility in Glasgow’s West End.

Oil price plunge hampers Scotland’s key services sector but helps small firms overall: Growth in Scotland’s private sector economy stagnated in February when there were clear signs the fall in oil prices has hit activity across the country, a closely-watched survey has found.

Balfour Beatty tries to appease investors as it announces new £250 million deal on the Thames Estuary flood defences: Balfour Beatty has tried to appease investors after a spate of profit warnings by announcing a new £250 million deal on the Thames Estuary flood defences.

No action is best action as Balfour Beatty emerges from the storm: Questor last looked at Balfour Beatty in May 2014 when the construction and infrastructure company was effectively in freefall. Chief Executive Andrew McNaughton had just departed the business after the presiding over a third profit warning, news that sent the shares plunging 20%. Mr Quinn, a turnaround specialist, started on January 1, but between his arrival and Mr McNaughton’s departure, Balfour put out two further profit warnings, saw a potential merger with Carillion implode, and faced a £1 billion speculative approach for its portfolio of public-private partnership contracts from John Laing Infrastructure Fund. Just three weeks after starting in the role, Mr Quinn had the job of announcing the results of a review by KPMG into what had gone wrong at Balfour – a task that also saw yet another profit warning. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the new Chief Executive also had to tell investors that a £200 million share buyback was being cancelled and the company’s dividend policy was going to be reviewed for the annual results. Balfour has announced a string of major contract wins recently that show it is more than capable of winning work. it revealed it had landed £250 million of work constructing Thames flood defences, last week it announced it was moving into residential development with £400 million of work to build homes on the London Olympics site, and last month won a £265 million contract extension with Thames Water. Questor is happy to maintain that hold rating. The reason for this is the dividend. In 2013 the company yielded more than 5% but with the share buyback being cancelled and a review of the investor payout policy on the way, it seems unlikely Balfour will reward shareholders as it has done historically for some time to come. With the share price gaining steadily as Mr Quinn sets about restoring the company’s fortunes it could be an interesting growth share, but Questor believes a lot of this recovery has already been priced in. Balfour Beatty, Questor Says “Hold”.

Affordable housing bond launches to help investors cash in on first-time buyers: Pocket, the London-based property firm that sells affordable homes to “moderate income” professionals in the capital, has launched a mini-bond on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube, which will allow the business to raise up to £1.5 million from armchair investors.

WPP: behind the smiles: True, the advertising group’s 14% increase in reported 2014 profit after tax to £1.2 billion on revenue 5% higher at £11.5 billion was robust enough. And WPP has set a demanding pace this year, with net sales — a measure of its underlying revenue growth — up 4% in January from a year ago. That is a faster clip than in its fourth quarter and 2014 as a whole. Trouble is, it is but one month. But beneath all the bluster, WPP made cautious noises about this year, and investors initially marked down the shares. Net sales growth in the final quarter of last year slowed to a pedestrian 2%. Although WPP still expects decent growth in the U.S. in 2015, it added a big caveat about the aftermath of quantitative easing. Just as well that it is thrusting into faster-growing markets elsewhere. Nor does WPP’s guidance of like-for-like net sales growth of more than 3% this year — or an operating margin improvement of 30 basis points before currency effects — offer reassurance. It is instead redolent of WPP’s caution and a reminder that sector conditions are tough, despite recovery in its units in the U.S., U.K. and patches of the Eurozone — even as the euro weakens. The advertiser’s shares have risen 16% this year and now trade at 17 times forward earnings. But even for groundhog fans there is not enough in Monday’s results — or WPP’s outlook — to justify a sustained run.

ICG set to expand direct lending operations with €3 billion fund: Intermediate Capital Group has raised a second, €3 billion fund for lending money directly to small or midsized companies, almost double the size of its first, in a sign of investors and corporate borrowers getting used to banks’ retreat from the sector.

Bookmakers fear havoc on Cheltenham Festival’s opening day: Willie Mullins, the most successful Irish trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival, could wreak havoc on the bookies on Tuesday as the event kicks off under the shadow of tightening gambling regulation.

FirstGroup seeks to compete with Virgin on East Coast main line: FirstGroup is squaring up to Virgin Trains with a plan to run services on the East Coast main line that would be cheaper and faster than the incumbent’s existing operations

Oil heads for new fall after weather-driven false dawn: The price of oil is set for a fresh lurch downwards as temporary constraints on supply begin to ease, analysts have warned.