Member Info for AllAtSea

Welcome to the Hotel California!

OMG they're here as well!! Is nowhere safe?

Vote down the directors pay? Would it help? I think my miserably small investment ( a few £10ks in Aviva) gives me no power at all in the scheme of things and that is probably true for most of us here give or take a little. If the big stakeholders wish to keep the gravy train going and leave me on the platform I don't know what I can do about it, realistically.

what benefit I would get from owning Toyota shares? In the longer term.

Some 'experts' feel the dividend increase was a bit stingy. There is also a vague hint about a return of capital which baffles me. But then what do I know? I am used to being baffled.

"CAD$230 million in respect of 2015 activity has been retained at the Canadian holding company in order to part-fund the proposed RBC General Insurance Company acquisition."

Yeah well, with Brexit we will soon be sitting 20 miles from the USE (United States of Europe) doing what they tell us anyway. You can't walk away from your cake and eat it.

The problem with Aviva is that it got into bed with RBS at the wrong time. IIRC RBS shares were >£15 each back then and Aviva had strong bancassurance links with RBS under its CEO Robert Scott who left for an RBS directorship in 2001 and resigned in 2009. At least Aviva shares did not quite follow RBS over the edge and since the removal of Moss(for which I voted), the health of the company is slowly improving under a very different leadership. There is still a good dividend covered by profits unlike at RBS. I struggle to how pillorying those now in charge would do anything other than damage the company's stability. Certainly it would be shutting the stable door many years after the horse had done a runner and probably died of old age. At the end of the day us long standing shareholders in this company of many names made our decision to buy them and were deceived like so many others. That we have to live with.

The question is when will this share even pay a dividend. At least with other banks with low share prices the dividend still exists, e.g. HSBA and BNC (the present is no guide to the future obviously). Why hold a share with none when other cheap shares are stilling paying out? Why not jump ship while you can? A serious question.

I'd certainly agree that £2.6m seems way too much for the performance. However Aviva in 2013 was facing disaster and Wilson has a tough task. As for the PM, he'll make his money when he steps down.

What do they have to do? "UK insurance giant Aviva reported £545m ($850m, €781m) after tax profits for first half of the year, as it digests the costs of integrating Friends Life. The company announced a 15% increase in dividend. Aviva's operating profits were £1.17bn, a 9% increase on same period last year." http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/aviva-reports-solid-profits-its-digests-friends-life-1514322 What's so bad about that?

Look on the bright side. If they are doing well then they can raise the dividend. I have had some of their shares so long the certificates were on parchment. I have given up hope of a profit and just look forward to the divi.

I ask that question for my entire portfolio with a single exception in the 250 club. There must be a reason why investing in stocks has become a mugs game!

Insurance companies are like bookies - they hedge their bets through 'reinsurance' companies like Munich re and Swiss re. Outsiders may well be fooled into wrongly estimating their exposure because they don't know how the risk has been handled. Aviva may have been given a poisoned chalice amongst its acquisition companies books but if they did their due diligence right its unlikely. The drop in the share price is simply a kind of global panic thanks to China's unsophisticated investors. IMO.

Deutsche backs ‘oversold’ Prudential: ‘Prudential’s shares have underperformed most of their peers this year in the face of investor nervousness over a range of issues: management change, outflows at [fund arm] M&G, China volatility, [new regulations] Solvency II and US Department of Labour proposals,’ said analyst Oliver Steel. ‘We assess each of these and do acknowledge a lower growth rate than hitherto, but conclude that the group is still capable of 11% per annum underlying profits growth over the next few years – with the possibility of some mitigation in the form of higher dividends. ‘We expect some reassurance from management on these issues at the first-half results and, on a price-earnings ratio in line with the sector for 2017 estimates, think current levels offer an attractive entry point.’ Steel has a £18.50 price target on the shares, which edged 6p lower to £15.34 on Friday.

Wouldn't that be perilously close to communism?

We've had this Greek problem hanging over us for literally years. There was no good solution but it now looks like 'they' are going to make a decision which way to fall at last. Shares have plummeted but have things changed that much? Or is it a golden opportunity to pick up cheap stocks?

Prudential Insurance (and Standard Life) has hit a regulatory snag in India. Badly drafted legislation has stopped the company taking a larger stake in a local insurers. The idea of the new law was to open up India's under-funded insurance market to foreign investors but it had the opposite effect. It is expected that an amendment will soon remedy the problem and allow PRU to greatly expand its interests in that country. I wonder how much this has depressed the SP and how soon the legislation will remove the obstacle. Foreign investment is not universally popular it seems. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Government-suffers-setback-on-insurance-reform-bill/articleshow/40266334.cms http://invezz.com/news/equities/18817-Prudential-share-price-Companys-growth-plans-in-India-to-suffer-setback

Directly, not a lot as Aviva's exposure to Greek debt is relatively small. It's all down to the knock-on effect of whatever happens.. Some say this is a great buying opportunity!

Altho' Aviva planned at one stage to bring York staff into the city centre and sub-let its outlying offices, the plan seems to have changed. They are now offering for sale the superbly located monstrosity, Yorkshire House, and returning staff to offices next door at Wellington Row and also to the outer fringe of the city at Monks Cross . It seems they failed to find a tenant for the fringe offices and so will use it themselves. Aviva has re-affirmed its commitment to staying in York however those shunted off to the outer darkness of Monks Cross will have mixed feelings about their reprieve.