Equity Part.Inc Share Discussion Threads

[ursus] 14/2/2006 17:00

on 1/2/06, brit issued a trading statement to say that profits wd be ahead of market expectations because in part of a strong investment perf. so this has implications for eqpi/c that don't need to be spelt out for clever chaps like rambo...

[mangal] 22/12/2005 10:40

The caps currently stand at some 20% discount to NAV; so, narrowing of this discount by about 10% should take them to 100p.

[rambutan2] 22/12/2005 01:00

an instit's been buying over last week or two and pushed price up. imho epic will be v keen to make sure the share price is cleanly over 100p by 11/06 as that's when wrrs expire.

[rambutan2] 04/11/2005 13:06

hi linhur, my response posted earlier seems not to have disappeared.

i rang this lot earlier in week and results are due within days, auditors just signing off. the asset team always seem busy and got quite a few different funds going now. as well as the instit money. but this is def a slow burner - and there's still a year to go on the warrants which they must be keen to get into the money.

re eqs. ive got a feeling about sam - icelandic money usually means business. but yes, a bit seat of the pants. the team has done ok with cobra capital though, and i spoke to peter griffin, and while v cagey, he didnt put me off. however, i certainly havent bet the house on it!

re rut. i am sure that further big value to come out of carron, but havent been able to get back to anyone there.

re gtmp. i am now all out. although, someone is still buying.

regards
rambutan

update 13.45: results came out as soon as i'd posted. look nice and solid, but still underplayed. so i continue to suspect they are saving up the good news for when they think they can make best use of it.

[linhur] 04/11/2005 10:07

Results should be out shortly. I notice a steady tick up in NAV without the increased value of the stake in the asset management team.

Ram

Note your interest on another thread on eqs. Seems a bit racy with sam at the moment!

Kind regards
Linhur

[rambutan2] 01/3/2005 22:33

and a comment on the results. note the 4th para...

Brit Insurance Holdings dubbed 2004 'the year of the cat' in terms of natural catastrophes, but despite heavy insurance claims, the company emerged in 'very rude health' according to chief executive Neil Eckert.

Profits before tax were 32.1% higher at £102.5 million against £77.6 million in 2003, well above the market consensus of £89 million.

The company (BRE) wrote gross premiums worth £1.09 billion against less than £1.02 billion the year before; net premiums were £910.4 million, up from £850.8 million.

Returns from investments, over 86% of them managed by Brit's associate company Equity Partnership, rose from £50.9 million in 2003 to £77.3 million, much better than analysts expected.

A final dividend of 2p takes the year's total to 6p which represents 80.6% of profits after tax. Brit shares added 0.75p to 86.75p in light trading.

([e-mail])

[rambutan2] 01/3/2005 09:55

and from the notes...

(ii) Directors' interests in transactions

Jo Welman is a shareholder in The Equity Partnership Limited ('EPL'). EPL's
subsidiaries, EPIC Asset Management Limited and EPIC Special Investments
Limited, have entered into certain investment management agreements with the
Group and, accordingly, Jo Welman is interested in these contracts. Details of
these contracts are set out in part (iv) below. Jo Welman resigned as a
non-executive Director of the Group on 27 May 2004.


(iii) Loans

As at the balance sheet date, Brit Insurance Holdings PLC had a loan of
£8,100,000 outstanding made to Ri3K Limited, a 77.2% owned subsidiary.

This amount has been fully provided for in the books of the Company.

With effect from 1 January 2005 interest will be charged on outstanding balances
at an annual rate of 3% above the prevailing three month LIBOR rate.

As at the balance sheet date, Brit Insurance Holdings PLC had a loan of £652,000
outstanding made to The Equity Partnership Limited, a 40.9% owned associated
company.

Interest is charged on outstanding balances at an annual rate of 2% above the
prevailing six month LIBOR rate.


(iv) Trading

The Equity Partnership Limited, EPIC Asset Management Limited and EPIC Special
Investments Limited

During the year, the Group traded with The Equity Partnership Limited ('EPL'),
an associated undertaking 40.9% owned by Brit Insurance Holdings PLC and with
EPIC Asset Management Limited ('EPAM') and EPIC Special Investments Limited
('ESI'), subsidiaries of EPL.

Brit Insurance Holdings PLC charged EPL £250,000 (2003: £186,000) in respect of
operational office costs.

EPL, EPAM and ESI also have an agreement with Brit Group Services Limited
('BGS'), a 100% subsidiary of Brit Insurance Holdings PLC, whereby BGS pays
certain expenses on behalf of these companies which it then recovers in full.
The total of all of these costs amounted to £3,359,000 (2003: £2,863,000), of
which £524,000 (2003: £782,000) was outstanding at the balance sheet date.

EPL also traded during the year with The Equity Partnership Investment Company
PLC ('EPIC'), a company with a 29.9% holding in EPL. Brit Insurance Holdings PLC
owns 34.7% of the ordinary share capital of EPIC. EPIC purchased investment
management services from EPL amounting to £652,000 (2003: £699,000).

As at the balance sheet date the amounts owed in relation to these services
amounted to £115,000 (2003: £114,000).

EPAM and ESI are Investment Managers regulated by the Financial Services
Authority and provided the following services to Brit Insurance Holdings PLC and
its subsidiaries:

EPAM
Commenced Fund value Fees charged Fees outstanding
As at during 2004 As at As at
31 Dec 31 Dec 31 Dec
2004 2004 2003
£ £ £
Investment Advisory:

Brit Insurance Holdings PLC 2001 103,548 9,775 -

£m % £ £
Investment Management:

Brit Syndicates Limited 2001 666 0.18 102,862 89,400
Brit Insurance Holdings PLC 2002 - 0.15/0.125* - 3,300
Masthead Insurance Underwriting Limited 2002 186 0.15/0.125* 19,690 19,800
Brit Insurance Limited 2002 514 0.15/0.125* 54,562 31,300
Brit Insurance (UK) Limited 2004 142 0.15/0.125* 15,073 -


* On 1 October 2004, EPAM reduced its annual fee from 0.15% to 0.125%.


ESI
Commenced Fund value Fees charged Fees outstanding
As at 31 during 2004 As at As at
Dec 2004 31 Dec 31 Dec
2004 2003
£m % £ £
Investment Management:

Brit Syndicates Limited 2003 5 1.5 6,218 6,820
Brit Syndicates Limited 2003 14 1 11,921 10,946
Brit Insurance Holdings PLC 2003 1 1 673 1,873
Masthead Insurance Underwriting Limited 2003 6 1 5,513 4,580
Brit Insurance Limited 2003 12 1.5 15,837 11,569
Brit Insurance Limited 2003 29 1 24,383 26,718
Brit Insurance Limited 2004 1 2 996 -
Brit Insurance (UK) Limited 2003 8 1 7,152 6,567

[rambutan2] 01/3/2005 09:21

finals for brit out this morning. heres the relevant snippets...

Our investment return of £77.3m (2003 £50.9m) has exceeded our expectations.
More than 86% of our invested assets are managed by our associated company, The
Equity Partnership Limited, which has performed well and the relationship has
proved to be successful.

Financial Performance

Brit's financial performance in 2004 was helped by the combination of good
underwriting conditions and strong investment management performance. Operating
profit rose to £101.9m from £75.4m in 2003. Our underwriting performance was
notable for record levels of earned premium income and an excellent combined
ratio of 92.5% despite an abnormally high level of catastrophe claims
contributing 10.5 percentage points to this ratio. Total invested funds and
cash increased by 34.8% while the Group's post-tax return (excluding
amortisation of intangibles) on weighted average net tangible assets for the
year was 13.0%, up from 12.8% for 2003.

Strategic Investments

The Group owns 40.9% of The Equity Partnership Limited ('EPL'), an investment
management group. The Group's share of EPL's pre-tax profit is £0.6m (2003:
£0.2m) and it made a further significant contribution in the form of a very good
investment return. Of the Group's total invested assets of £1,833.1m (including
100% of syndicate assets), EPL manages some £1,583.9m, plus some £603.0m of
external client monies.

Investment

The Investment Committee has responsibility for the overall investment policy of
the Group, including cash and liquidity management. Investment policy at the
date of this report is to continue holding the majority of funds in short dated,
liquid investments with high credit quality.

Group invested assets totalled £1,833.1m (including 100% of syndicate assets) at
31 December 2004 (2003: £1,434.9m). Since 1 March 2004 group asset allocation
and overall investment management has been delegated to EPIC Asset Management
Ltd ('EPAM'), a 70 per cent subsidiary of The Equity Partnership Ltd ('EPL'), an
associated company of the Group.

Overall asset mix varies from time to time. It is not anticipated that the
total invested in equities will exceed 10 per cent of total invested assets.

Total invested assets at 31 December 2004 were allocated as below:

31 December 31 December
2004 2003
£m £m
Equities 175.7 154.0
Bonds 711.5 793.7
Cash and deposits 945.9 487.2

Total 1,833.1 1,434.9


The return from the main asset classes is shown below alongside various market
indices.

Sterling fixed income investment performance 2004

BRIT Bonds and cash 4.56%
1 month £ LIBID 4.40%
1-3 year Gilts 4.64%

US$ Fixed income investment performance 2004

BRIT Bonds and cash 1.19%
Cash 1.30%
1 Year US Treasury 0.82%

Equity Returns 2004

Brit Equity 18.99%
All share index 9.21%
FT 100 7.54%
Nasdaq in GBP 1.33%


The currency mix of the investment portfolio was:
31 December 31 December
2004 2003
% %

Sterling 64.6 61.8
US$ 26.4 30.9
Euros 7.1 5.7
Other 1.9 1.6

Total 100.0 100.0


Equity investments include managed equity portfolios, which form part of the
Group's FAL, investments in Lloyd's entities and a number of strategic
investments. A breakdown is given below:

Equity Investments 31 December Return for year 31 December Return for year
2004 2004 2003 2003
£m £m £m £m

Lloyd's listed investments 13.9 0.8 13.7 2.8
Other listed investments 1.0 0.2 0.9 0.7
Non listed investments 1.1 0.1 1.1 (0.2)
Managed portfolios 133.8 20.3 116.0 13.5
Protected funds 1.4 - 1.4 -
Ebix Inc 7.2 0.9 6.3 4.9
EPIC PLC - Capital shares 12.0 2.0 9.9 (5.1)
EPIC PLC - Income shares 5.3 0.9 4.7 0.8

Total 175.7 25.2 154.0 17.4


The duration of the total bond portfolio was 1.65 years at 31 December 2004
(2003: 1.27 years). The bond portfolios were invested as below:

2004 2003
Rating £m £m

Government 352.4 425.5
AAA 162.4 164.2
AA 138.9 133.9
A 55.5 64.4
BBB 1.0 4.4
Other 1.3 1.3

Total 711.5 793.7

[badtime] 11/2/2005 10:23

I know yur style ram ,,and i like it..lol

[rambutan2] 11/2/2005 10:21

yes. just a few. were always a long-term hold for me.
im not really a trader badtime.

[badtime] 11/2/2005 09:54

u still holding ram?

[rambutan2] 11/2/2005 09:49

price on the up this week, and bid-offer down to 2p. hmmm.

[badtime] 06/2/2005 15:12

Cheers ram..i echo yur thoughts

[rambutan2] 06/2/2005 15:09

wish he wasnt saying it! as bound to cast doubts in the mind.
its possible hes right, but perhaps more possible hes got another motive?
i can only go on what i saw and heard at the agm in dec which i (and only about 2 other shareholders) attended. it was only after that that i bought in, having thought that the board were telling it as it was. they seemed genuinely sure/determined to show that the co was near something good.
of course, i could have been suckered, or they could just have got it wrong, but until i see otherwise (when of course it will be too late!) i am going to stick with them. as always, i dont have more than i can afford to lose them - but i would hate to lose it.
at least there isnt long to wait...

[badtime] 06/2/2005 14:45

Ram..i know this is totally o/t..but on epd..wot u reckon about that person saying about bad news?

[rambutan2] 06/2/2005 14:43

bit of a slow burner this one, but share price creeps up on any buy and note the NB on thurs nav statement. perhaps an increase in valuation on the way as unlikely to be lower than 1% i would have thought...

Equity Partnership Investment Company PLC

"The net asset value (unaudited) for the above fund's Capital Shares at close of
business on 31 December 2004 was 97.0021 p"

NB The Directors are in the process of reviewing the basis of valuation of the
Company's holding in the Fund Manager, Equity Partnership Limited (EPL). Until
the process is concluded, the valuation of EPL will remain at 1% of Funds under
Management as at the end of November 2004 unless managed funds fall, in which
case the valuation will decrease proportionately. As a result the valuation of
the Company's EPL shareholding as at 31 December 2004 was 1% of Funds under
management plus retained earnings/cash.

[badtime] 04/11/2004 21:08

Thanx ram i have a few of both

[rambutan2] 04/11/2004 17:30

quick update.
the pinnacle ipo was dropped as reckon can make more via other doors.

epb (see header link) which theyve got a little holding in has been bid for and are awaiting developments.

price of incs has whacked up as folks finally woke up to its (safe) div.

epam now has £2bn under management.

prelims were out last week but are awaiting proper report to have a dig through.

nav of caps finally nearly back to 100p (99.1p in todays ft).

as always, spread horrible.

however, one day that discount will come in, prob when some of the hidden/hoped for value emerges.

[rambutan2] 07/9/2004 11:08

well, the above seems to have been held back for mo, but here some good news taken from bre interims out today...

Investment

Our investment portfolios have performed in line with the benchmarks provided to the Investment Managers over the first six months of the year. Our return for the period, before interest payable and expenses, is £22.3m (30 June 2003:
£22.6m). During the period the Group's policy has been to invest in high
quality bonds and short-term cash and deposits. The equity portfolio which
represents just under 11% has performed positively despite the FTSE 100 index
falling 13 points over the period.

In order to simplify the asset allocation procedures a decision was taken to
consolidate the fixed income mandates with Epic Asset Management Limited (EPAM)
with effect from 1 March 2004. As a result EPAM manage 83.3% of the Group's
overall investment portfolio of £1,608.4m as at 30 June 2004. The allocation of the Group's investments is shown in the table below. During the period the
Group has benefited from the inflow of insurance premiums and the benign claims
experience resulting in an increase of £260.0m in the overall investment
portfolio.

The average duration of the bond portfolio at 30 June 2004 was 1.5 years (30
June 2003: 2.2 years). The average duration of bonds and cash was 1.1 years (30 June 2003: 1.2 years).

Allocation of Assets

30 June 2004 30 June 2003
£m £m
Equities
Lloyd's investments 14.6 13.6
Managed portfolios 128.3 51.7
Protected funds 1.4 4.7
Other investments 27.0 22.1
Associated undertakings 1.4 0.2

Total equities 172.7 92.3
Bonds 655.6 569.2
Cash and deposits 780.1 575.6

Total cash and investments 1,608.4 1,237.1

[rambutan2] 25/6/2004 11:47

some welcome news, look who the largest shareholder is...

25 June 2004

ANNOUNCEMENT TO BE MADE BY THE AIM APPLICANT PRIOR TO ADMISSION IN ACCORDANCE WITH AIM RULE 2

ALL APPLICANTS MUST COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING:

COMPANY NAME: Pinnacle Regeneration Group plc

COMPANY ADDRESS: 4th Floor
Caxton House
2 Farringdon Road
London

COMPANY POSTCODE: EC1M 3HN

COUNTRY
OF INCORPORATION: UK

COMPANY BUSINESS:

Pinnacle Regeneration Group plc provides a wide range of housing and community services to public sector
organisations through two divisions, Pinnacle psg and Regenter. Pinnacle psg is a leading private sector provider
of housing management and related services to the public sector. Regenter, a joint venture with John Laing plc,
is one of the first dedicated entities to be established to bid for UK housing PFI projects.

DETAILS OF SECURITIES TO BE ADMITTED (i.e. where known, number of shares, nominal value and issue price to which
it seeks admission and the number and type to be held as treasury shares):

Up to 22,000,000 ordinary shares (par value of 10p)

CAPITAL TO BE RAISED ON ADMISSION:

Approximately £15 million, with approximately £4 million being paid to vendors of shares in the Company pursuant
to the placing

FULL NAMES AND FUNCTIONS OF DIRECTORS AND PROPOSED DIRECTORS:

Aubrey John Adams Non-executive Chairman
Godfrey Alexander Blott Chief Executive Officer
Peregrine Murray Addison Lloyd Deputy Chief Executive Officer
John Andrew Swinney Group Director

Christopher John Knight Non-executive Director

PERSON(S) INTERESTED IN 3% OR MORE OF THE ISSUER'S CAPITAL, EXPRESSED AS A PERCENTAGE OF THE ISSUED SHARE CAPITAL
STATING WHETHER BEFORE OR AFTER ADMISSION:

Significant interests before admission:

The Equity Partnership Investment Company plc 1,904,760 15.4%
Savills Finance Holdings plc 1,843,430 14.9%
Greycoat Limited 1,347,880 10.9%
Rathbone Jersey Limited 1,259,150 10.2%
Quebec Holdings Limited 678,530 5.5%
HSBC Trustees (CI) Limited 647,380 5.2%
Silkworm Management Limited 549,890 4.5%
Brown Shipley & Co. Limited 456,910 3.7%
AS Bond, LC Bond and JS Bond 456,900 3.7%
Catherine Place Limited 456,900 3.7%
Lutea Trustees Limited 365,530

[rambutan2] 29/4/2004 20:35

note that the chart above (which i unsuccessfully trid to remove) and the epic code refer to the incs. it is the caps (eqpc) which hold the hidden value and are at a big discount.

[rambutan2] 29/4/2004 20:31

interims out today.
as explained, not all going completely to plan but not so bad either.
imho still lots more upside than downside.

[rambutan2] 18/3/2004 20:58

note: chart above is for eqpi and not eqpc, which is what i like. here is the eqpc page...

right, heres an opportunity which the mkt hasnt picked up on/refuses to get...

in its recent results, brit insurance (bre) re its (growing) investments, makes reference to...

• Investment management team at associate EPL in which Brit
has an economic interest of 47.6% continued to make significant progress.
Funds under management increased to £1.4bn

The Equity Partnership Limited
The Company owns 34.1% of the ordinary share capital of The Equity Partnership
Limited ('EPL').
The company's principal activity is that of an investment manager.

also...

(ii) Directors' interests in transactions

Jo Welman is a shareholder in The Equity Partnership Limited ('EPL'). EPL's
subsidiaries, EPIC Asset Management Limited and EPIC Special Investments
Limited, have entered into certain investment management agreements with the
Group and, accordingly, Jo Welman is interested in these contracts.

and...

(iv) Trading

The Equity Partnership Limited, EPIC Asset Management Limited and EPIC Special
Investments Limited

During the year, the Group traded with The Equity Partnership Limited ('EPL'),
an associated undertaking 34.1% owned by Brit Insurance Holdings PLC and with
EPIC Asset Management Limited ('EPAM') and EPIC Special Investments Limited
('ESI'), subsidiaries of EPL. Jo Welman, a Non-Executive Director of Brit
Insurance Holdings PLC is also a Director of EPL. Brit Insurance Holdings PLC
charges EPL £8,500 per annum per EPL employee in respect of operational office
costs.

EPL, EPAM and ESI also have an agreement with Brit Group Services Limited
('BGS'), a 100% subsidiary of Brit Insurance Holdings PLC, whereby BGS pays
certain expenses on behalf of these companies which it then recovers in full.
The total of all of these costs amounted to £2,863,222 (2002: £2,032,782), of
which £782,267 (2002: £260,634) was outstanding at the balance sheet date.

EPL also traded during the year with The Equity Partnership Investment Company
PLC ('EPIC'), a company with a 29.9% holding in EPL. Brit Insurance Holdings PLC owns 34.7% of the ordinary share capital of EPIC. EPIC purchased investment
management services from EPL amounting to £698,836 (2002: £712,876). As at the
balance sheet date the amounts owed in relation to these services amounted to
£114,000 (2002: £105,000).

and there are plenty more references, but you get the gist. so, The Equity Partnership Investment Company PLC, as referred to above holds a 29% stake in the fund management company (and much much more), but it is trading at a dismal 30% discount to last stated nav. that is an anomoly and is totally not pricing in either the current investments (a nice mix) or the growth of funds (mainly brits but also plenty of other) in the fund management company. yes, at the mo the shares are illiquid (there are two share classes, incs and caps, but it is the caps (eqpc) that are the ones to get) but at some stage they will be rerated and move up very nicely thankyou. at the moment you are buying at the bottom and their is plenty of potential up.

their web site: >

stock exchange releases:

split capital share calculations, nav etc etc...


01/02/06: currently as well as the institutional money under management, there are four open ended EPIC funds - the insurance and general fund; uk equity fund; select opps fund; and the life settlement fund.
also, there are three aim listed EPIC companies...
epic reconstruction:
http://www.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/index?company=ERN

economic lifestyle trust:


climate exchange: