Is it a co-incidence that Northern Rock & Canoe & General Ins.?

Question

are owned by the same company?

Answer 1

No but it is a fact that each limited company is a separate legal person to it's shareholders. This means that if one company in a group goes belly up the others do not have to contribute to its debts. Unless of course fraud is involved but that would be down to fraudulent directors rather than the Company itself . Much as some would like it to be I do not think it is here. I seem to remember that US law sees it rather differently but I do not know how differently