Lancashire Share Discussion Threads

[edmundshaw] 13/9/2018 12:16

"I don't care if this goes down to a Category 1," CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said. "We're still going to have a Category 4 storm surge."

The category is essentially the wind speed. But there will still be major flooding from the big storm surge and an awful lot of heavy rain. Just not as many upturned caravans...

[pogue] 13/9/2018 07:33

Now a cat 2 storm and the price rises could be an interesting hurricane season betting on storm stengths.

[edmundshaw] 12/9/2018 08:58

Hurricane Florence - the most powerful storm to threaten the Carolinas in nearly three decades - is expected to strengthen, say forecasters

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45479766

Apparently the 12 foot surge is expected at landfall, coinciding with high tide... I wish the best of luck to the people of the Carolinas!!

[jrphoenixw2] 02/9/2018 19:35

Does anyone have the FX rate that'll be applied to the latest div [x-ref Speeds post 1353] ?
It always surprises me how damned opaque such things are on the LRE/Investors webpages [to be clear: their own website section for investors]

- It still appears to be unpublished on their own website > hxxps://www.lancashiregroup.com/en/investors/shareholders/dividend-history.html

[cwa1] 22/8/2018 07:08

Lancashire Upgraded to Hold at Berenberg

[harleymaxwell] 21/8/2018 14:40

Seems to be recovering well. No hurricanes helping the outlook possibly...

[linton5] 27/7/2018 14:42

Wish I’d choose Pfc instead oh well 😔 last 2days

[speedsgh] 26/7/2018 06:57

On interim dividend...

Lancashire announces that its Board of Directors has declared an interim dividend for 2018 of $0.05 per common share (approximately (£0.03) per common share at the current exchange rate), which will result in an aggregate payment of approximately $10.0 million. The dividend will be paid in Pound Sterling on 12 September 2018 (the "Dividend Payment Date") to shareholders of record on 17 August 2018 (the "Record Date") using the £ / $ spot market exchange rate at 12 noon London time on the Record Date.

[speedsgh] 26/7/2018 06:56

Half Year Report -

GROWTH IN FULLY CONVERTED BOOK VALUE PER SHARE, ADJUSTED FOR DIVIDENDS, OF 2.9% IN Q2 2018 AND 5.9% YEAR TO DATE

COMBINED RATIO OF 69.2% IN Q2 2018, 67.1% YEAR TO DATE

FULLY CONVERTED BOOK VALUE PER SHARE OF $5.70 AS AT 30 JUNE 2018...

Alex Maloney, Group Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"With a strong underwriting result and a decent investment performance, despite the volatility in the investment market, the Group has delivered a solid set of results for the year to date with an RoE of 5.9%. Our earlier predictions of how the insurance market would respond following the 2017 loss events are proving to be accurate. Pricing peaked at the January renewals and we are now experiencing a decline from those levels, although we remain in positive territory for the year to date. We have still been able to take advantage of rate increases across most of our lines of business. While it may appear that our second quarter premiums don't support that statement, with a year on year reduction of 4.3%, the rate increases and growth we saw in the quarter are masked by the impact of the timing of renewal of some multi-year deals and some prior underwriting year premium that came through in the second quarter of 2017. We are pleased with the new business we have been able to add, in particular across our property book, and our new energy onshore and power underwriters are steadily building their books.

We will watch this year's wind season with interest. While we believe that there is still too much capital in the market, another year of losses may serve to dampen appetites. We are witnessing some of our competitors exiting unprofitable lines of business and Lloyd's is also beginning to take action on under-performing syndicates and lines of business. Time will tell what impact this will have on the market. In the meantime we will continue to execute our strategy - supporting our core clients and building out some new lines of business where the pricing and margins achievable make sense to do so. We expect our risk levels to therefore stay materially the same."

Elaine Whelan, Group Chief Financial Officer, commented:

"We have produced a strong result for the quarter with a return on equity of 2.9%. Our investment portfolio performed well through another rate increase and on-going volatility in the market. On the underwriting side we continued to grow our book modestly and we also had the benefit of further favourable development on our prior year reserves. Our net loss ratio was 18.5% and our combined ratio was 69.2% in the second quarter.

The majority of our book renews in the first half of the year so we have been able to lock in the peak post loss pricing at the beginning of the year. Our outlook for the rest of the year is a continuation of current trends. However, we expect to maintain our core book and add new business where there is the opportunity to do so. We will continue to match our capital to those underwriting opportunities."

[harleymaxwell] 13/7/2018 15:38

Has to be a takeover candidate - pretty listless but with multiple platforms Bermuda lloyds and ils- got to be a target maybe with renaissance re

[jrphoenixw2] 13/7/2018 15:29

4th on the FTSE250 Riser's Board at time of writing, +5.26%. Going to be interesting to see closing volume and later RNSs and any rumours...

[harleymaxwell] 13/7/2018 09:58

Big volume today

[jrphoenixw2] 30/5/2018 17:07

Setanta picked up an additional 2 million odd shares, declared position 11.15%>12.16% i.e now +24.5million/201million in issue.
RNS was post-close, 5.12pm. Maybe some +ve reaction tomorrow?

[jrphoenixw2] 29/5/2018 18:09

A viewpoint/outlook from SeekingAlpha today.

[garycook] 08/5/2018 06:16

JRP,Good read.

[jrphoenixw2] 08/5/2018 05:46

Lancashire Holdings' (LCSHF) CEO Alex Maloney on Q1 2018 Results - Earnings Call Transcript [of the meeting on 3-May]

[jrphoenixw2] 04/5/2018 09:29

dd. 3-May, Extract:

'Earlier this year, shares in Lloyd’s of London insurer Lancashire Holdings (LSE: LRE) slumped after the company announced its first underwriting loss since its IPO, thanks to the string of hurricanes that whipped the east coast of the United States throughout the second half of 2017.

While this was disappointing, the fallout from these catastrophes has allowed insurers to increase rates charged to customers for the first time in several years. As Lancashire’s first quarter results show, the company is taking full advantage of the favourable environment to make up for last year’s issues.
Profits rising

Today the insurance group reported that pre-tax profits for the first quarter of 2018 nearly doubled to $42.4m on gross insurance premiums of $216m.
Higher rates charged to customers as well as a benign loss environment help boost profits. The company’s combined ratio — a measure of underwriting profitability — improved to 65.2% from 85.6% (a ratio of less than 100% indicates a profit).

Based on these figures, I’m expecting the company to announce a bumper dividend payout towards the end of the year. Lancashire has a history of paying out almost all of its profit to shareholders via special dividends. Unfortunately, last year due to catastrophe losses, the group decided not to issue a special payout as it needed the cash to meet claims.

But with profits rising, it’s more than likely that the group will reinstate its distribution policy towards the end of the year. City analysts have pencilled in a special distribution of approximately 30p per share, giving a dividend yield for the full year of 5.6%. However, if profits continue at the current rate for the rest of the year, according to my figures, Lancashire is on track to earn a net income of $170m for 2018, similar to the level recorded for 2015 and 2016.

In both of these years, the company paid out a special dividend of 60p. With this being the case, I believe the City’s 30p estimate is far too conservative. A special payout of 60p per share would leave the stock yielding 9.6%.'

[jrphoenixw2] 03/5/2018 19:55

It opened guns blazing, high of c648 @ 8.10am, but hit a wall of selling. Close at 604p. LSE have the volume at 2.739M which is high.

[cwa1] 03/5/2018 07:32

Well, market reacts in rational manner shocker. Who'd've thought it....

[cwa1] 03/5/2018 06:57

On a quick glance those look like solid 1st quarter results to me. Assume that share price will fall now that I've said that just to make a fool of me!

[speedsgh] 01/5/2018 09:37

Peel Hunt: outlook to improve at Lancashire -

Insurance group Lancashire (LRE) has had a benign start to the year but Peel Hunt believes the picture should continue to improve as premiums increase.

Analyst Andreas van Embden retained his ‘add’ recommendation and target price of 690p on the shares, which rose 1p to 596p yesterday.

He said that market conditions were ‘improving but not sufficiently to warrant a material expansion of Lancashire’s underwriting capacity’.

‘Instead, selective growth combined with high single-digit rate increases should see an improvement in Lancashire’s underlying margins,’ he said.

‘We have assumed a modest decline in the company’s risk profile as Lancashire keeps its excess capital powder dry ahead of the June/July renewals. The first quarter 2018 numbers on 3 May should see support from a benign start to the year.’

[harleymaxwell] 30/4/2018 07:26

Nice start

[harleymaxwell] 27/4/2018 17:30

Just think they are a sitting duck. Probably can't acquire , best days behind them. Multiple platforms to operate from .....

[jrphoenixw2] 27/4/2018 14:46

Yeah... well...! I don't know :) The share price movement is 'interesting' but considering it's relatively low volume I understand how it can get whip-sawed around.
Hopefully we might be able to figure out the volume and any block-trades after the close...
Invesco were recently hovering around an 18% holding, close to the limit without making a formal bid. We'll see! - despite my apparent 'weariness', I'd [obviously] love to see the share price do well...