People and Business: Bagging the wrong animal

CLAUDE BEBEAR, chairman and chief executive of the French financial services giant AXA, has obviously got his priorities right.

While Mr Bebear's underlings were slaving away last week trying to work out whether they should increase AXA's 360p offer for Guardian Royal Exchange (GRE), the boss was in Africa "big game hunting".

How could bagging a UK insurance company possibly compete with bagging a wild animal on the high veldt? I'm sure Mr Bebear's shareholders will join me in wishing him the best of luck on his next shoot.