£3.11bn loss for Lloyd's

THE Lloyd's of London insurance market has broken with decades of tradition to report its results on an annual rather than three-yearly basis, for the first time. Under the new proforma accounting system the world's oldest insurance market recorded a loss of £3.11bn for 2001. The market said the figure reflected the "exceptional catastrophic record" for the year, in which it lost £1.98bn in the terrorist attacks on September 11.

It lost £371m in catastrophes including the Petrobras oil rig accident off the coast of Brazil, attacks on the Air Lanka fleet in Sri Lanka, and tropical storm Alison which struck the mid-west and east coast of the US.

NEW JOBS: Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Mobile is creating 200 jobs. Virgin Mobile, a joint venture between Virgin Group and One 2 One, is recruiting call centre staff for its head office at Trowbridge, Wiltshire. The recruitment drive will take Virgin Mobile's total headcount up to nearly 1,500.

JET CENTRE: Construction of the new London City Airport Jet Centre is well advanced with the arrival of buildings on site from York. Portakabin subsidiary, Yorkon, has manufactured 14 steel-framed modules, which were delivered to the airport by road and crane-lifted into position. This method of construction will reduce the project time, ensuring earlier completion of the facilities.

RAIL GROWTH: Engineering firm Balfour Beatty remains on track for a strong year after securing £209m of rail work in the US. The company is part of a joint venture to build a commuter line in Boston. It has also won a deal to extend a rail system in San Diego.

Homes buy-up: Newcastle-based Paramount Homes has completed the £25m acquisition of 424 properties. Paramount acquired the properties in Newcastle, Washington, Darlington, Stockton, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough, from the Pemberstone Group.

WIRELESS ACCESS: Telecoms group BT is planning to build a high-tech network to allow people on the move to have high-speed wireless access to the Internet. The group plans to launch the UK's first public access Wireless Local Area Network (LAN) which allows data to be received over the air using radio frequency technology