Brit Insurance Share Discussion Threads

[arlequim] 29/3/2006 22:19

Get right to this news, opportunities are !!

[gucci] 29/3/2006 22:13

beautiful
back towards 120p territory

[Abuse team] 28/3/2006 15:19

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[scumdog] 28/3/2006 15:18

Shorters have gained the upperhand at present.

[scumdog] 28/3/2006 14:50

Come on down me lovely.

[Abuse team] 23/3/2006 19:27

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[jonak] 23/3/2006 19:26

what a bargain

[scumdog] 22/3/2006 10:51

Dividend of 3p.

[scumdog] 22/3/2006 10:51

Shares gone ex-div today hence the share price fall.

[gucci] 20/3/2006 12:51

bought back in

heading towards 120p imho

[Abuse team] 17/3/2006 20:35

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[jonak] 17/3/2006 20:35

OK got it from spob's link (thanks!)
22 March

[jonak] 17/3/2006 20:34

anyone know when these go/went ex-div ?

[spob] 16/3/2006 12:34

Brit batted by year of disasters
By Caroline Muspratt (Filed: 16/03/2006)

The Telegraph


Lloyd's insurer Brit Insurance said profits almost halved last year as an unprecedented level of natural disasters took its toll.

However, a strong investment performance partly offset the impact of Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita, which caused record insurance losses last year.

Chairman Clive Coates said: "2005 will go down as a year of natural catastrophes of unprecedented frequency and severity.

"Only time will tell whether the significant increase in natural catastrophes is seen to abate towards historic levels or to escalate further, fuelled by global warming and increasing economic development in risk-exposed zones."

Brit said pre-tax profits slumped to £62.4m last year from £116.1m because of an unprecedented level of catastrophe claims. However, the investment return was ahead of expectations, as invested assets grew to £2.4bn from £1.9bn. Total revenue rose to £1.08bn from £937.3m.

Dane Douetil, Brit's chief executive, said the company's performance was "superb", given the events of the past year. However, he said: "We just don't know whether last year was a one-off or the start of a longer term trend."

The group's combined ratio, a key performance measure, slipped to 105.2pc from 92.9pc because of the catastrophe claims.

Brit has appointed Citigroup as its joint corporate broker, replacing Cenkos. Mr Douetil said Cenkos was a small specialist broker, and "what we really needed was a large financial adviser to widen our shareholder base." He said the move "doesn't mean a change in strategy".

The company has revised its dividend policy and for the foreseeable future - at least three years - it would pay up to 50pc of earnings over the period. Brit also proposed a share consolidation of one new share for every three existing shares.

Brit will pay a final dividend of 3p a share. The shares fell 5¼ to 96¾p.

[gucci] 16/3/2006 08:27

looks like we're heading back to 80's

[Abuse team] 15/3/2006 19:20

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[jonak] 15/3/2006 19:20

Nothing has changed in the fundamentals of the company, since last months announcement of the drop in earnings following Katrina. maybe this is an emotional reaction to a repeat of the same message ?
I would expect BREs earnings to recover this year, given a more normal pattern of disasters - or even improve slightly given that a rise in premiums is more sustainable following a bad year.

[dumpling] 15/3/2006 17:03

These shares were considered "good value" by IC last Sept , NUMIS having maintained their predicted EPS of 10.9P. What planet were NUMIS living on, I wonder. I see that BRE were not going for tjhe renewals round in retrocessional catastrophe business - does this mean they are out of disaster cover in the USA? Wish I hadn't bought these.

[gfrae] 15/3/2006 15:47

these figs are apalling.what is wrong with this co?.the nav per share is about the same as it was when they had their last rights issue in 2003[i think].they have raised buckets of money and dont seem to have made any progress.The share price,which before 9/11 was higher than Amlin`s, is now 1/3 of Amlins,despite Brit having raised far more money than amlin.And they crow!

[alexandrews] 15/3/2006 14:03

That might be what they are hoping for, but today's results are the facts that are foremost, IMHO.

Alex

[makingheaps] 15/3/2006 13:24

And the future dividend policy being 50% of earnings so we would need to improve from 5p EPS to 12p EPS in 2006 for it to be maintained. I think this must be roughly what they are expecting assuming the hurricane season is more benign than 2005. That would make the prospective PE about 9. If it happened then they are good value still even after the rerating.

[alexandrews] 15/3/2006 13:16

What did you think was really good about the results?

The expense ratio of ~30.9% (by my calculation)? The combined ratio of 105.2%? The EPS of 4.93p (=> P/E ~20)?

Alex

[mayall] 15/3/2006 13:06

Hello -is anybody there???

What are we to make of this morning's events ? I thought the results were really good but obviously I'm missing something. Is it to do with this consolidation? I hope someone can enlighten me.