In brief: Navy’s destroyer deal does to BAE, Alstom sell off to GE ‘will save jobs’, Partnership staff cut in annuity blow

BAE today won a £70 million Ministry of Defence contract to maintain Type 45 destroyers — the largest and most-powerful ships the Royal Navy has ever had — at Portsmouth and on their operations in the UK and globally.

The two-year deal comes on top of BAE’s existing, £22 million contract to maintain the navy’s four River Class vessels and managing the Portsmouth Naval Base.

The boss of Alstom today claimed the French engineer’s $17 billion (£9.98 billion) deal to sell off most of its power generation business to US rival General Electric would save jobs and protect France’s national interests.

Patrick Kron said the transaction “is a combination of Alstom’s qualities and GE’s economic strength”. The deal was backed by the French over a rival joint offer by Germany’s Siemens and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Chancellor George Osborne’s shock Budget assault on the annuities market today cost 100 people working for Partnership Assurance in London and Redhill their jobs.

The speciality annuities provider, which dropped out of the FTSE 250 last week, said cutting almost 20% of its workforce would help achieve cost savings of £21 million a year. It said this reflected lower annuities sales. The shares rose 2% to 126p.