Admiral Share Discussion Threads

[sat69] 20/7/2007 19:58

Future Key Announcement Dates
2013
11 Nov - IMS

Company Website

[slogsweep] 13/7/2007 14:31

Hope he's right topped up @869

[slogsweep] 13/7/2007 14:31

Hope he's right topped up @869

[catmint] 13/7/2007 13:33

Numis has upgraded its rating for Admiral to buy from add with a £13 target price.

www.citywire.co.uk/News

[m.t.glass] 13/7/2007 01:45

The Independent, 13 July (Jeremy Warner)

Admiral should cash in while going's good

Admiral Group's decision to turn down private equity offers of up to £650m for its price-comparison website, Confused.com, is understandable but wrong. No company that finds it has an unexpected success on its hands is ever inclined to sell it. Instead, executives like to give themselves a pat on the back and think how clever they were to have spotted such an outstanding opportunity.

Yet the history of such successes - think Dixons and Freeserve, National Grid and Energis - suggests strongly that the wiser course is to capitalise on the achievement, cash in the chips, and concentrate on the underlying business from which these flash-in-the-pan enterprises have sprung.

The price offered by private equity was an excellent one which if anything seems to imply a higher valuation than that being used for the planned stock market flotation of Moneysupermarket.com, a bigger and arguably superior business.

As highlighted by this column yesterday, price-comparison services are becoming an incredibly crowded market place, with any number of competing websites seemingly set up by the day. Only quite recently, a number of former Confused.com employees set up a clone, gocompare.com. The big daddy of them all, tescocompare.com, also arrives shortly.

Henry Engelhardt, the chief executive of Admiral, says that the governance structures demanded by private equity for taking a minority interest were too restrictive. In which case, he should have sold them the whole thing, or demerged it. As a broker of car insurance, Confused must already be in conflict with Admiral's core business of directly sold motor cover. If he waits too long to realise the value of Confused, Mr Engelhardt will have missed the boat.

[slogsweep] 12/7/2007 11:31

A buy/ top up at these levels - tempted MMMM....

[poppa07] 12/7/2007 09:13

Did you see that dip??? Wish I had some spare cash!

[poppa07] 12/7/2007 09:13

Company Admiral Group PLC
TIDM ADM
Headline Statement re Confused.com
Released 08:53 12-Jul-07
Number 1208A



RNS Number:1208A
Admiral Group PLC
12 July 2007


Admiral Group Plc today reports that it has ended discussions with potential
private equity investors regarding its subsidiary price comparison business,
Confused.com. After careful consideration of the offers made, the Board of
Admiral Group have decided to terminate this consultation process.

In response to interest shown, discussions were held with a number of private
equity firms about the sale of a minority interest in the Confused business.
Potential minority investors typically expressed an interest with an implied
valuation of the entire business in the range of £600m to £650m. However, the
corporate structure and governance demanded by minority investors was
significantly more onerous than the Board had anticipated. The Board has
therefore concluded that this weakening in its flexibility to determine the
strategy of Confused would restrict the ability to maximise Confused's potential
as part of the Admiral Group in the medium to long term.

It is for these reasons that the Board at present believes that it is in our
shareholders' best interests for the Group to retain a 100% interest in Confused
and to continue to follow our clearly defined growth strategy for the business.
That strategy is focused on maintaining Confused's strong market share of car
insurance price comparison; on maximising the value created for shareholders
from that position; and on exploiting fully the potential for Confused derived
from the growth of price comparison in other product areas.

The Group's interim results will be announced on Tuesday 4 September 2007.






This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

[hectorp] 08/7/2007 14:30

Yes I am here today having read that Admiral is a buy due to rising premiums, I'll place a limit to buy on the shares though the short term chart suggests we are at a short term high. That cdould all change.

[nicksoj] 08/7/2007 14:20

A piece in Today's Times people...

Admiral Group

IT has been a rocky four months for car insurer Admiral Group. After rising strongly in March to hit a high of £11.92 in April, the shares tumbled, losing a quarter of their value over the past three months.

For one of the most efficient and savvy operators in the motor-insurance market, with a reputation for delivering strong profit rises, it all looked a bit odd.

The shares mauling can be partly blamed on the twists of sentiment. When Admiral chief executive Henry Engelhardt declared back in March that there needed to be big hikes in car-insurance premiums for the business to be profitable again, the market didn't seem to be that worried. Blame it on a delayed reaction, but a month later and investors were unnerved.

The company's admission in late May that it might sell off Confused.com, the price-comparison website, for a chunky £700m, should have supported the shares. But disappointingly, potential buyers have baulked at the price tag – not surprising when analysts valued Confused.com only at £440m – and so only 25% will be flogged off.

Last week, all it took was comments from rival AA that rates were rising again for sentiment to start to shift and the shares to tick back up. Things should quieten down, for Admiral is as well-placed as any to cash in on rising premiums.

[godel] 06/7/2007 17:39

Really?

And what would that be?

[godel] 06/7/2007 17:39

Really?

And what would that be?

[saintloup] 06/7/2007 09:04

Noise traders get what they deserve.

[godel] 05/7/2007 13:23

Agreed ... I bought 3 lots on the recent downturn.

Now in profit by 20pps looking to sell above 1075p.

Happy trading.

{;-)

[baughfell] 05/7/2007 09:24

A break through £10 is a break of the downtrend. That's the key level

[andysand] 05/7/2007 08:37

Hmm. Down trend seems to be over to me. Something strange going on...


Andy

[baughfell] 04/7/2007 14:41

Surprised there's been no comment on this board recently.

Having gone short I bought in on the second drop to £9.00 hoping for a double bottom, so nicely in profit at the mo - but the down trend still not broken IMO

[godel] 27/6/2007 21:01

Going down with the rest of the 250.

Expect a rally soon enough.

Technicals say way oversold and the MACD and Av Driectional Index screams buy.

[geoff21] 27/6/2007 13:06

Can anyone explain why this share price is being hammered so much?

[nicksoj] 15/6/2007 12:45

@ 975p - still very cheap. The German launch will come pretty soon ! The company continues to make buckets of outperforming profits into the downcycle. If you buy in the 9's your going to make a mint in the medium - long term.
No confused news yet though ?

[graham99114] 15/6/2007 10:40

bought in on 8 Jun'07 @ 9.05

gone up 7% since then - handsome profit (7% per week) - as I said earlier this has definately hit the bottom and is now on its way back up - I wouldnt like to be short

better make that an 8% rise - I'll edit agiain in 5 mins when it hits 10%

[baughfell] 11/6/2007 20:43

Yes stop hit on Friday - too busy to post then

[m.t.glass] 11/6/2007 18:02

Didn't it get hit last Friday when price went lower than today?

[baughfell] 11/6/2007 09:51

Trailing stop hit at £9.15. Time to move on