IN BRIEF (Page 17)

Lloyd's profit halved

Lloyd's of London, the specialist insurance broker, said its profit halved in 2008 because of hefty hurricane losses and weaker investment returns.

Lloyd's, which traces its origins back 321 years to a London coffee house where wealthy merchants met to insure ships, reported a 2008 pretax profit of 1.90 billion pounds yesterday, down from 3.85 billion in 2007.