Carl Icahn ended his activist campaign against Cigna Corp.'s pending acquisition of Express Scripts Holding Co. after proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis recommended that shareholders approve the transaction. Icahn informed the Securities and Exchange Commission that he no longer intends to solicit proxies to vote against the deal.
A subsidiary of funds advised by Bain Capital Private Equity LP agreed to acquire
U.K.-based Willis Towers Watson PLC is suing California-based Alliant Insurance Services Inc. for attempting to "decimate" its construction business by poaching a 12-person team from Willis, re-insurance.com reported.
Three former merger and acquisition underwriters of London-based Neon Underwriting Ltd. won a lawsuit against the company, with a U.K. High Court judge ruling that it breached their employment contracts when attempting to make changes to them, The Insurance Insider reported.
The board of Irish insurer FBD Holdings PLC said "internal allegations" against CEO Fiona Muldoon have not been upheld by an independent investigation that was launched in June.
Global reinsurer capital
Pressure is mounting on Lloyd's of London syndicates to place more of their business electronically, despite targets having been exceeded in the second quarter.
U.K.-based Pension Insurance Corp. PLC concluded a pension insurance buyout of a scheme that covers £800 million of liabilities and about 9,000 members.
Swiss Life Holding AG reported first-half consolidated net profit
South Korea-based Samsung Life Insurance Co. Ltd. filed a civil suit
Shinhan Financial Group Co. Ltd. is in talks to acquire private equity firm MBK Partners Ltd.'s 59.15% stake in ING Life Insurance Korea Ltd., The Chosun Ilbo reported.
Now featured on S&P Global Market Intelligence
CDC Foundation CEO warns of 'Disease X,' cites donor-research 'firewall': The head of the CDC Foundation tells S&P Global Market Intelligence that diseases such as Ebola that can develop into epidemics or pandemics should be a focal point for public health practitioners.
Read the second half of S&P Global Market Intelligence's interviews with the newest SEC commissioners, Robert Jackson Jr. and Hester Peirce.
Tech titans to ease access to health data; Icahn concedes to Cigna/Express deal: Carl Icahn has decided to end his activist campaign against Cigna's pending acquisition of Express Scripts; and technology giants such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft pledged to remove technological barriers to healthcare.
In other parts of the world
Asia-Pacific: NAB fiscal Q3 cash earnings fall YOY; KKR mulls IPO of most Indian operations
Europe: Esure, Bain Capital reach £1.21B deal; Swiss Life names CFO; Aareal posts profit
Middle East and Africa: Bahrain's Bank ABC, Gulf International Bank post results; Uganda holds key rate
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, Hang Seng dropped 0.66% to 27,752.93, while the Nikkei 225 gained 2.28% to 22,356.08.
In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 gained 0.02% to 7,643.69, and the Euronext 100 rose 0.43% to 1,065.51.
Click here to read about today's financial markets, setting out the factors driving stocks, bonds and currencies around the world ahead of the New York open.
On the macro front
The import and export prices report and the Redbook Index for retail sales are due out today. The National Federation of Independent Business' index of small business optimism increased to 107.9 in July from 107.2 in June.
The Daily Dose has an editorial deadline of 7:30 a.m. ET. Some external links may require a subscription. Links are current as of publication time, and we are not responsible if those links are unavailable later.