Homeserve Share Discussion Threads

[hippo] 08/2/2012 10:32

I actually found the link, you actually posted. It is for a different area in the states. The impression I got when researching this Company, is this is the beginning of the end, sooner or later it is going to catch up with them.

nasprey - 18 Nov'11 - 08:13 - 377 of 446


Homeserve USA:

[nasprey] 08/2/2012 10:31

hmm, that is strange.

I saw it on twitter this morning from KTIV NEWS 4's twitter page:

[hippo] 08/2/2012 10:22

nasprey - that is strange, that exact same article was posted last year with a different date in Oct 11.

Are they reminding the folks in siouxland again, or has someone got it in for Homeserve.

I do not hold a position here.

[nasprey] 08/2/2012 10:05

On a slightly different note, I just came across this news article from the US regarding Homeserve USA:

Officials: Homeowners beware of water pipe insurance letters

"In the last few days, folks in Siouxland have received letters from a Connecticut based company asking them to take out insurance on their water lines.

City leaders want to get the word out that homeowners should beware. Officials say the company, Homeserve USA, is in no way affiliated with either South Sioux City or Sioux City.

Officials have notified the Better Business Bureau, which is conducting their own investigation of the company and its marketing activities.

Officials want to remind folks to completely investigate any home warranty or maintenance agreements because they say they aren't common."

[nasprey] 08/2/2012 10:01

Cutting 7% of their workforce.... Not good news for a number of my friends who work at the Walsall head office!

StockMarketWire.com - Home emergency specialist HomeServe is to cut around 200 jobs in the UK - about 7% of its full-time workforce.

The company says this is a result of having fewer customers in the UK and the continued refinement of its marketing and customer contact strategies.

It estimates the one-off costs in the UK, including the re-organisation and redundancy costs and additional third party support, will be around £20m this year, compared to its previous guidance of £10m.

The reduced headcount is expected to reduce operating costs by up to £5m in 2013.

[shanksaj] 08/2/2012 08:58

2nd of four profit warnings??

[rimmy2000] 06/2/2012 09:44

the nice bloke who mended your boiler needs to get out and fix the leaky shareprice by looks of it..

[ignoble] 02/2/2012 15:39

Have had cause to use Homeserve a couple of times in the last weeks and the service was absolutely brilliant.
Had a leaking loo at home ..Homeserve were there and did a thorough and professional repair.
Nice bloke who did the job , polite and all that (for a plumber anyway, lol)

Have rental property covered...microwave broke down , tenant phoned direct and we were told the microwave was not worth repairing. Fair enough but we did receive a £50 voucher from Homeserve to spend at Comet toward a replacement.
Nice surprise !
They look after Gas safety cert's and all that stuff on wife's behalf ...she loves them as a Company and thinks they are brilliant. Take all the hassle out of being a Landlord.

[rimmy2000] 02/2/2012 10:03

as quoted in today's shares mag
"THE TROUBLED HOME emergency repairs
group is rejigging its management team
as part of wider efforts to reshape the
business following last year's suspected
mis-selling scandal. Chief financial officer
Martin Bennett becomes chief operating
officer of Homeserve (HSV) in a newlycreated
role. We remain negative on
the stock until there is clarity on how
the marketing problems have affected
earnings. Having originally said to short the
stock at 211.3p (Plays, 5 Jan), keep selling Homeserve as we believe the reduced
marketing activities will have had a worse
impact on business than the company
expects. Homeserve suspended outbound
marketing on 31 October 2011 after finding
problems with the standard of phonebased
sales. It has since begun retraining
staff , yet we are concerned the Financial
Services Authority will launch an official
investigation into past selling techniques,
as it is trying to stamp out poor practices in
the sale of Financial products."

[mj19] 31/1/2012 20:59

LONDON (SHARECAST) - Homeserve's current Chief Financial Officer, Martin Bennett, is being promoted to become Chief Operating Officer of the home repairs firm.

Bennett's move will see him take responsibility for "risk management and best practice" as the firm looks to move on from an awkward mis-selling scandal.

The company suspended its telesales operation in the UK back in October as it reviewed the techniques staff were using to get people to sign up for emergency insurance cover.

Since the scandal broke, the stock has dropped around 40%.

Following Bennett's move, David Bower, the current Finance Director will become interim CFO until a full replacement is recruited.

Homeserve shares were down 0.45% by 8:55am.

[rimmy2000] 30/1/2012 15:33

falling again. RNS due next month I believe

[kristini2] 30/12/2011 12:36

signs the price is cracking with that late 10p sell off, time to increase the short position-should soon be able to sell to june to cover the period beyond the results

[masurenguy] 13/12/2011 07:17

RNS Number : 8316T
13 December 2011

HomeServe plc - UK business update: New UK affinity partnership

HomeServe announces today that it has agreed a long-term partnership with Sembcorp Bournemouth Water (SBW).

The addition of SBW as an affinity partner increases the number of HomeServe's UK water utilities partners to 15 covering 23.5m UK households. Under the agreement with SBW, HomeServe, will promote its home emergency and repair policies, using SBW's brand, to over 200,000 residential households as well as Bournemouth's existing 10,000 home emergency policyholders. Richard Harpin, CEO of HomeServe plc, commented: "We are pleased to have signed a long-term affinity partnership agreement with Sembcorp Bournemouth Water enabling HomeServe to further extend its UK water utility footprint." Roger Harrington, managing director of Sembcorp Bournemouth Water said: "We're delighted to be partnering with HomeServe, to offer our customers the peace-of-mind that goes with HomeServe's market-leading home emergency and repair service."

UK update

As previously announced HomeServe is implementing its action plans to reinvigorate its UK customer focus. The UK business continues to make good progress in recommencing its sales and marketing activities. Inbound activity has now increased to cover around 70% of UK affinity partner households and preparation is well underway for the January marketing mailings.

As we mentioned in our interim results, we have undertaken a review of our complaints handling function and appointed a new Director of Customer Relations, reporting directly to Jonathan King, CEO of HomeServe Membership Limited, to make recommendations and improvements in this area. We now intend to outsource our complaints handling function in early 2012, reflecting our commitment to ensure customers receive at all times the high standards of service that we and they expect.

Conference call

A conference call for analysts and investors will take place at 8.30am this morning. The conference call can be accessed by dialling [phone] and pin code 115260#. A replay of this call can be heard by dialling [phone] and pin code 381536# later in the day for a period of 2 weeks.

[kristini2] 08/12/2011 14:24

nice post

signs are there that the trend is running out of steam and topping out, reopened a small short

[nasprey] 08/12/2011 09:42

Like many of you, I've been watching this stock like a hawk over the last 2 months.

I can't see this going much higher than 300p any time soon, The massive drop from a few weeks ago is still fresh in investors minds and IMO the recent increase from circa 225p is unjustified with buyers blindly following Invesco.

Only a month ago the share price managed to dust itself off and clamber from 250p all the way back up to 340p before very quickly tumbling even further 210p.

Simon Cawkwell hates this stock and is convinced it's about to fall off a cliff. I agree with him. Back in November he recommended a Sell down to 150p (albeit before the Veolia acquisition) but that whole Veolia deal does nothing for me:





"Veolia's decision to sell its 51 per cent stake in the joint venture comes as the French company struggles to turn its business around. Earlier this year it announced an €800m writedown, owing to problems in its US, Italian and north African businesses."

"Shares in Homeserve rose 5.5 per cent to 270p, while Veolia's share price was largely unchanged at €9.41."

"Last week the troubled home repair and insurance company revealed a £10m one off charge and £10m in additional annual costs for retraining sales staff and broader changes to UK marketing. It also said renewal revenues would fall in 2013."


Homeserve's Claims Director Simon Pook has also 'Jumped Ship' to join Ai Claims Solutions. Whether or not that is a necessarily a bad thing is debatable.


"Mr Pook added: "After just over six years at Homeserve, I am delighted to be joining the team at Ai."

"Homeserve had to suspend all sales in October temporarily following a mis-selling review, however a spokesman for Ai Claims confirmed that Mr Pook was not involved due to his position on the claims side of the company."

"Prior to his two years as claims director at Homeserve, Mr Pook spent four years as Homeserve's international business development director and seven years in senior director roles at retailer the Game Group."




I'm going with Peel Hunt for the time being, 220p then even lower after Xmas IMO.

[pamjim12] 07/12/2011 12:20

Me too kristin

[kristini2] 07/12/2011 09:52

glad i spotted that this was in an uptrend and closed my short position, now when to reopen the position is the challenge.

[grahamburn] 07/12/2011 08:16

Though Homeserve is the first company mentioned in this long article, seems the problem of mis-selling/poor service is rife - and it's probably even worse for operations such as AA or Halifax......

[kristini2] 05/12/2011 10:37

Simon

THese reviews can be dragged out for ever, may be for years . The fsa may not have even provided a time line for completion of the review. However, with Pwc overseeing the review hsv will not be able to fudge the issue.

Assuming the review is to be as costly to the company as anticipated; what can we expect and when as an rns in the form of disclosure of the negative?

[masurenguy] 05/12/2011 08:33

Simon - bearing in mind your comment in #424 above, are you still short or have have you subsequently reduced your exposure or closed your position ?

[kristini2] 05/12/2011 08:18

i luckily closed my short a while back when it was apparent to me that the price wanted to move higher, and after another poster pointed out that the demise of hvs will take a while.

This review could be dragged out and the full extent of the cost not be revealed until the results in May?

this could move over £3 in the meantime

[grahamburn] 04/12/2011 18:58

That covers all bases, Simon! So you could be right whatever happens!!!!!!!!!!!!

[simon cawkwell] 04/12/2011 18:08

Masureguy,

I am not sure. They have just made this acquisition. But this may be bravado. These sorts of blokes can do anything you care to think of (and one or two things you would not care to think of) when found with their trousers down.

Simon