Homeserve Share Discussion Threads

[kristini2] 20/5/2014 08:36

bad experience with homeserve on an insurance claim recently; I was on hol and wife had to call them on a boiler problem. First call out sorted the problem , however a second engineer had to attend to follow up and deal with an issue.

This guy after 3 hours left my wife without any heat or Hot water, walked off the job !

they have lost credibility and the insurance is now cancelled, and to think I stuck with them based upon previous personal service throughout the problems they went through and subsequent FSA fine, so much for loyalty

[discodave4] 17/1/2014 23:01

MGuyStrange.....no opinion yourself?DD

[masurenguy] 17/1/2014 17:31

That was a comment that I picked up elsewhere and reproduced here. Fair enough, I should have used quotation marks and attributed it.

[discodave4] 17/1/2014 17:22

Refer to your post #638 13th Jan. DD

[masurenguy] 17/1/2014 15:40

DiscoDave4 - #643: Masurenguy "they have come through this whole escapade without a major impact on their credibility"

I have not posted the above comment so why are you attributing this "quotation" to me?

[discodave4] 16/1/2014 23:16

PsMasurenguy "they have come through this whole escapade without a major impact on their credibility"They have lost 30% of their Uk customers to-date, the scale of the fine will undoubtedly lead to a further loss of customers (in the UK & elsewhere), it's likely to initiate fresh additional mis-selling claims and their reputation will be damaged for a long long time...so all in all IMO credibility has been severely damaged & I am still at a loss to understand the market reaction, but then again have never understood it.Am not de-ramping as have been an investor here in the past & held for many good years (sold out about 18 months ago).Good luck all.DD

[discodave4] 16/1/2014 20:06

Please can somebody explain why the markets reacted the way it has to the FCA fine - ok it's out in the open & uncertainty is removed, BUT, the £28m not provided for in the accounts must hammer their year end bottom line & statutory profit before tax will surely now be in the red (minus about £26m??) with adjusted profit before tax being half what it could have been. Am I missing something?DD

[masurenguy] 15/1/2014 14:33

Simon Cawkwell - 9 Nov'11 - 260:I now reckon that HSV is a total bust. Clearly, HSV has sold vast numbers of policies to people of limited intelligence entirely deceitfully. Forget the collapse of HSV's current business - although that is rapidly in progress right now. The unfortunate customers are now entitled to have their money back. This will kill HSV several times over.

Simon Cawkwell - 9 Nov'11 - 274: I am short at 232.5p. I expect the sequence will be that an insolvency specialist will tell them to raise a lot of new capital, absent which the board will have to put the company into administration/liquidation. There will be nothing back for shareholders.

LOL - a totally wrong call here!

[ignoble] 13/1/2014 16:57

Sell the rumour , buy the fact !

[topvest] 13/1/2014 08:57

Hmm...looks like the market likes it..I think a bigger fine was priced in, but probably not quite this big. At the end of the day, the market dislikes uncertainty and they are now almost done on this issue. The scale of mis-selling was pretty bad here, by all accounts, so presumably that is why they are getting bigger fines than the big 6. Nothing reported on Radio 4 and Google news only shows up a Heart fm report. They could do with this being low profile, and they seem to be keeping it that way at the moment.

[masurenguy] 13/1/2014 08:31

"The size of this fine was quite unexpected. It is not an insignificant sum and will increase net debt from circa £40m to £70m and it comers on top of £35m of planned capital expenditure this year. Whilst it will severely hit the bottom line it is a one-off cost and they have come through this whole escapade without a major impact on their credibility and have wisely diversified into overseas markets. This should draw a line under the whole episode and we should see growth return over the next year or so."

RNS Number : 4456X
Homeserve Plc
13 January 2014

FCA Update

HomeServe announces receipt of the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) Draft Warning Notice (the 'Notice') relating to the investigation into historic regulatory issues at HomeServe Membership Limited. These issues principally relate to historic sales and marketing, controls and governance and complaints handling, in line with our previous announcements.

The Notice proposes a financial penalty of £34.5m (assuming an early settlement discount of 30%). This is higher than the company's provision and HomeServe is therefore prudently increasing its provision by £30m. HomeServe will now engage in discussions with the FCA to finalise the Notice and do not propose making any further comment during these discussions.

The ongoing activities of the UK business are unaffected by this Notice and the business continues to trade in line with expectations. HomeServe will issue its Interim Management Statement on 5 February 2014.

[topvest] 13/1/2014 08:03

I don't think debt is a problem as the business has very modest gearing and is cash generative. You have to question fining good british companies £50m (£34.5m assuming early payment discount) for issues that they have already resolved and paid a very heavy price for anyway.

They had provided £4.5m I believe.

The market will probably like the fact that the uncertainty is at least removed and they can get on with their business. Not heard it on the news yet, so I would guess that as it's not one of the big 6 or a bank, the press are less interested.

[megabear] 13/1/2014 07:55

Yes quite a whopper. Think they only set aside £6m. This will almost double its net debt. See they didn't provide a trading update. All this poor weather in UK and States can't be too helpful.

[topvest] 13/1/2014 07:46

Quite a fine announced today. The provision did look like wishful thinking, but this is certainly a very big fine indeed. At least it draws a line under all of this..hopefully! Be interesting to see how much bad publicity they get.

[ignoble] 22/11/2013 08:50

Just used Homeserve for a boiler problem.

Brilliant service , more than helpful engineer and boiler sorted !

My experience of them is excellent.

I'm not a shareholder but thought I would pass my experience of the Company along

[brucie5] 27/7/2013 12:29

I think we're simply overbought. Resistance is at £3, and thereafter the share price looks likely to regain former highs. Big gap up towards £5 level, so I guess it needs a bit of momentum. Could even come down a bit before take off. Mr. Wong seemed to like these on account of the chart, which doesn't seem to have changed very much. I continue hold.

[kristini2] 26/7/2013 14:49

I had the same thoughts, why the mark down? maybe some thought the FSA past business review was done ?

[brucie5] 26/7/2013 13:48

Trading in line, debt down.. Marked down - why?

[brucie5] 10/7/2013 09:48

Mr. Wong says:
'Homeserve - is finally clearing the congestion band at 260-290p. This is an indication of uptrend reassertion. Watch to add on a crossover above 300p.'

To my mind WIN looks very similar. Juts taking a bit of time to get going..

[samunj] 02/7/2013 00:31

This will reach 350 to 400 by March next year. The fsa/fca investigation will conclude soon. They company will start selling properly, and expansion plans will be met. Will mean more profit, more policies and more customers. The city will happy that hsv has moves on.

Gl Peps

[brucie5] 01/7/2013 18:37

Mr. Wong has already noted the massive base pattern, and today looks like the share price might be recapturing the potential of the recent golden cross. After £3, there looks to be a considerable gap. But this is on chart basis alone. Would be glad to hear from someone with more detailed knowledge of the turnaround story. NAI.

[brucie5] 28/6/2013 17:18

Well who knows. Looks to me - and to Mr. Wong - like quite a good chart.. But £3 the level to beat imo.

[major clanger] 28/6/2013 16:48

HSV D/G to N from O/W by JPM; TP 284p

More here:

www.brokerforecasts.com/news/article/articleId/4622508

[bscuit] 09/6/2013 19:40

Bought some three weeks ago or so---up 27%!--lovely!