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By Gavin Haycock LONDON (Reuters) - Prudential Plc, Britain's second-largest listed life insurer, said on Saturday it had rejected a bid approach from larger rival Aviva. "The board of Prudential announces that it has received a proposal from Aviva about a possible combination of the two companies," Prudential said in a statement. "The board of Prudential, which has taken independent financial advice, does not consider that the proposal is in the best interests of shareholders and has rejecte ...

The FTSE 100 Index broke the 6,000 barrier for the first time in five years yesterday, spurred on by the prospect of more corporate deals, and bigger earnings. The market's feelgood factor has also been fuelled by a larger return of capital to shareholders, the strength of oil and commodity prices, and the housing market's tentative recovery. Clem Chambers, chief executive of trading website ADVFN ...

There was more bad news for shareholders as the group revealed that like-for-like sales fell 1.4 per cent in the past six weeks. Total sales, including the Beatties and Jenners acquisitions, rose by 16.2 per cent.Private equity firm Apax Partners was seen as the most likely suitor after House of Fraser revealed last month that it was in preliminary talks over a possible offer for the company.Ana ...

Ros Snowdon Deputy City Editor2005 was a record year for insurer Legal & General as new business, profits and UK market share hit an all-time high.The group, the UK's third biggest insurer, beat analysts' forecasts with a 43 per cent leap in annual operating profits to £1.09bn.New chief executive Tim Breedon was upbeat about the group's future pros- pects."We see the UK market growing by 5 to 10 p ...

Shares in Asia ended mostly higher Friday, with the Nikkei gaining after Softbank Corp. said it'll acquire the Japanese wireless assets of Vodafone Group in a deal worth $15.6 billion. Softbank Corp. (SFTBF) said in the afternoon it had secured a deal for Vodafone's (VOD) 97.68% stake in Japan-based subsidiary Vodafone KK. Shares of Softbank ended up 4%. Vodafone KK has 15 million subscribers, ...

By Poornima Gupta and Kevin Krolicki DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) disclosure of accounting errors and an additional $2 billion (1.4 billion pound) loss for 2005 on Friday deepened Wall Street doubts about the company's management and renewed questions about the automaker's long-term survival. GM bonds fell on Friday and shares dropped almost 5 percent, their biggest single-day decline in three months. GM's board of directors held an unscheduled di ...

Struggling US car giant General Motors (GM) has been forced to increase its annual 2005 losses by $2bn (£1.1bn) due to accounting errors. The company now says its losses totalled $10.6bn last year, with the additional $2bn caused by errors at a mortgage subsidiary. GM said as a result it was now going to delay filing its 2005 annual report. The company is also going to restate its results for the years 2000 to 2004 due to the same error. It added that it had further incorrectly accounte ...

U.S. stocks closed with modest gains Friday, allowing the major averages to enjoy weekly gains, after investor concern about rising interest rates was soothed by data showing steady economic growth with inflationary pressures contained. But General Motors Corp. was a weak spot on the Dow Jones Industrial Average Friday after it said its 2005 loss will be $2 billion steeper than it originally re ...

NEW YORK (Dow Jones) -- General Motors Corp. said it will have much steeper losses in 2005 than it originally planned, taking more charges for supplier- related bankruptcies and employee costs as it missed a deadline for filing an annual report. GM shares slipped in afternoon trading Friday, losing 3.1% to $21.54. The No.1 automaker in the U.S., GM said late Thursday its 2005 loss will be $2 ...

U.S. stocks rose in afternoon trading Friday in a week of solid gains for equities as investor concern about rising interest rates eased following data showing steady economic growth with inflationary pressures contained. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 7 points to 11,260.On the week, the Dow industrials are on track for a gain of around 1.6%. The Nasdaq Composite Index (RIXF) wa ...