RSA holds out for higher offer

INSURER RSA will be look- ing to push up the price for potential bidder Zurich to as high as 600p a share as it presents its half- yearly results this week.

The company, run by former RBS boss Stephen Hester, is expected by analysts to post pre-tax profits in the region of £230m.

Its price closed last week at 514p after news of a possible bid by the Swiss giant, thought to be in the region of 550p a share.

However, the board and its advisers are likely to feel this is not a big enough premium given the swathe of takeover bids sweeping the insurance sector. RSA shares were at 411p a month ago.

Since Hester took over in the wake of a scandal at the Irish division, he has sold a clutch of assets, overhauled the management and held a £775m rights issue in a bid to rebuild the balance sheet.

RSA has not held talks with Zurich. Analysts expect an improvement in full-year profits due to lower weather losses.

A clutch of other insurers will report half-year figures this week, including Aviva, which in April sealed the industry’s biggest merger since 2000 with a £6.5bn deal with Friends Life. Legal & General reports its results on Wednesday.

In the banking sector, HSBC will reveal its firsthalf results as the City seeks more insight into whether it plans to move its headquarters out of the UK.

The bank is expected to disclose in the results that it is adding around $ 1bn (£640m) to the sum it has earmarked to settle misconduct including foreign exchange rigging, according to Sky News.