Member Info for Extasio

No lol... stay in and drive lambo next year! £££

Or it is still around over the next 30 years... A large part of the issues here seem company specific. Lookers latest results looked much better.

I won’t vote for the offer. It’s low ball considering the cash reserves of he the business and cash generation of its operations.

Solid results in particular comparing to Pendragon's last update. Would have been nice to see development of operational cost as published by Pendragon in their quarterlies to get a fuller picture on profit development.

On Berenberg... I’d say they may appear bearish at times. IMO that is as there are too many analyst who give overly optimistic forecasts and participate in price hyping not because it is their true belief but because of other self interests. Berenberg has self interests too but gives more realistic assessments.

If you go by history, the next “big” news will likely come out when the next rights issue is announced. Rinse and repeat ... :)

Not exactly... comparatively poor tendering outcome at De Beers reflecting pressure on rought diamond prices. Also 424 carat diamond sold below analyst expectations. Better times to come hopefully...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/29/ferrexpo-finance-chief-sold-400000-stake-on-eve-of-share-slump

Please let us know if you find anything interesting Daisan. It's what made me wonder too...

Daisan, Not sure if the low reduction of net debt can be linked to an increase in gold still to be sold. Gold bullion value is up by 1m but stockpiles down by 1.8m. Maybe I am missing something? And yes VAT is the elephant in the room. No tangible improvement here since the last repayment over a year ago. I am hoping that resolution of the Acacia conflict and associted payments to Government will lead to further VAT releases. Fingers crossed...

Operational results are well ahead of their forecasts which is great. Nevertheless, only 1.2mm down in net debt. Makes you wonder how they can reach their cash positive target? Including the VAT receivables yes, without them the numbers don't seem to add up.

Seems I was rightly worried in my post back in Jan...

"SAGA
FCA Pricing Practice Probe
1 Jan '19

Happy New Year Fellow Investors! I am tempted to increase my investment in Saga. The company trades on an attractive PE, features a great dividend, the new cruise ships promise further increase in profits, is reasonably financially stable and I generally like the business model focused on older generations. Of course, there also some headwinds with brexit uncertainty likely to reduce number of house and motor transactions and hence reducing volume in Saga's retail insurance business but I regard this only as temporary.

What has held me back from increasing my stake is that I came across this article with regards to a FCA probe commenced in Oct 2018 into unfair spreads between retail insurance customers: https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/thematic-reviews/tr18-4-pricing-practices-retail-general-insurance-sector-household-insurance

I am not aware Saga management has acknowleged this yet publicly and am worried about the potential issues this could cause. In principle, one would expect elderly clients to be more at risk of unfair pricing as they are less likely to use price comparison sites and may be more prone to comfortably stick with a product familiar to them. If Saga was found guilty of unfair practices, this could notably reduce profitability of its insurance business and even open up sizable compensation claims.

Does anyone of you has info on Saga's insurance pricing practices to assess potential risk from the FCA probe?"

Nice hmm? See the drop off in new business sales this quarter without sufficient explanation/reassurance for shareholders IMO.

Happy New Year Fellow Investors! I am tempted to increase my investment in Saga. The company trades on an attractive PE, features a great dividend, the new cruise ships promise further increase in profits, is reasonably financially stable and I generally like the business model focused on older generations. Of course, there also some headwinds with brexit uncertainty likely to reduce number of house and motor transactions and hence reducing volume in Saga's retail insurance business but I regard this only as temporary.

What has held me back from increasing my stake is the I came across this article with regards to a FCA probe commenced in Oct 2018 into unfair spreads between retail insurance customers: https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/thematic-reviews/tr18-4-pricing-practices-retail-general-insurance-sector-household-insurance

I am not aware Saga management has acknowleged this yet publicly and am worried about the potential issues this could cause. In principle, one would expect elderly clients to be more at risk of unfair pricing as they are less likely to use price comparison sites and may be more prone to comfortably stick with a product familiar to them. If Saga was found guilty of unfair practices, this could notably reduce profitability of its insurance business and even open up sizable compensation claims.

Does anyone of you has info on Saga's insurance pricing practices to assess potential risk from the FCA probe?

The goodwill/intangibles originate primarily from re-floating the company after its private ownership phase and has not changed materially since then. That's the info I got from Debenhams' investor relations team when I asked about a year ago. If they indeed wrote down a significant part of their goodwill, it would be interesting to see how investors react to the ensuing huge headline loss.

Great many thanks for sharing!

Thanks for contributing this informative post Mart- may I ask what your source is?

Even if the RI would be required, the underlying business model remains attractive and share price has good chances to recover in the medium term.

Hi! I've joined the BMR watchgroup on Shuttferly as I like to idea to gather shareholders to improve governance of the company. Company management and shareholder communication was extremely poor for too long and the "arrangements" with Blue Square Minerals leave a big question mark and bitter after taste. It's time to act...

I would have thought that the increasing gold inventories are the reason for slight increase in net debt. If you assume their sale, net debt would have dropped in the quarter.