Member Info for Gerry557

If and I stress if, a rights issue did materialise I would be hacked off if as a PI I was excluded from any possible uptake. This is because often they are done at a discount to attract investment. If you are excluded you loose out both ways in that your holdings are diluted and you fail to gain in the opportunity to buy at the discount price. I admit you need to have capital free to partake which some may not have but why should you (Ive sold off recently) dip out. Maybe they might be "advised" to do a retail offering but I would be tempted to turn up at the AGM and have a rant if I was forced to loose out. Calls for heads to roll can get louder, remember as a shareholder your the (part) owner has they work for you. You also get to vote on remuneration and whilst it might not be binding a shareholder revolt has forced other directors to stand down and it sends a clear message. IMO any right issue should benefit all shareholders notwithstanding previous comments about what will happen to the SP inbetween. Not long to find out some meat on those skinny bones!

Was half expecting a rights issue to be announced 30 seconds after I sold. Great if you can get in on a nice fat discount but only if you have the spare capital. If not, it looks like you will be hit a second time with dilution but they might be able to save some of the divi. Dont know how the large shareholder would react. Initially there were against it but now as things have begun to sink in it may be back on the cards as a least worse option. Its a pity we (they) dont know how much they need to raise, if it was just the divi amount I might have stayed in and waited for the upside to reappear and that divi to come back. You cant really obtain figures here to work out a good price to get back in, maybe the results will make things a bit clearer but I suspect not all the claims will be in by then. Maybe alb10n's 75p will be well worth a pop even with all the bad news.

I sold half my holding recently and today sold the other half. Mainly for the same reasons that It is most likely to loose its divi and that weather events were predicted to hit the low capital ratios. The weather is not expected to get much better and yes it might be the same people getting hit more than once so not really costing extra but I was hopping for a snippet of good news to hit before the results such as a partial sale. Mr Hester's appointment, whilst positive, has boosted the SP short term so Im going to take the small profit out whilst I can and it is most likely to be recycled back into Vod post conversion. I shall keep an eye out on its progress and not ruling out a return but much will now depend on the outcome of the results. I suspect I'm listening to the "noise" and maybe some of this is "priced in" but IMO there is more risk to the down side at the moment. Maybe I should have just ridden it all out and adde more on any fall, which was my initial plan. Although a lot more bad news has been outed since. It is most likely that the SP will be higher in 5 years time as Hester has chance to work his stuff. Good luck all who remain, Gerry, the not so much buy n hold investor, at this moment in time!

Cut n pasted from a Daily Mail article By RUTH SUNDERLAND "Shares in insurance group RSA have enjoyed a fillip from the appointment of Stephen Hester as chief executive. Fair enough: he won respect in the Square Mile for his work at RBS, if not of the bank’s customers and political paymasters. He is also a bigger name than the troubled insurer might have hoped to attract. When it comes to rescue jobs, RSA is not in the same league as Royal Bank of Scotland, so it is reasonable to expect that he will succeed in turnaround and possibly a sale. But the arrival of troubleshooter Hester at a company is the corporate equivalent of Kate Adie turning up with her camera crew – it does not augur peaceful times." Time for a tin had and rubber dingy! Thanks for that info alb10n, parden the pun It never rains but it pours!

The Hester effect is already on a wind down. It seems strange that this SP moves opposite to the market at the moment. Some interesting points raised by alb1on. Hopefully Mr H is a bright boy and knowing what he doesn't know might be an advantage. Maybe he can start asking the questions that a 5 year old would understand and if the reply comes back and sounds like bull, hes in a position to do something about it. Hopefully they have already identified issues and put in place new measures. Mr H seems to be a trusted pair of hands, maybe the regulators will give him the benefit of doubt. The wind put paid to yesterdays bike ride, dont think it was that bad as far as RSA is concerned. The high tides might and more flooding in Somerset expected. It looks like the weather is going to remain news worthy for some time yet. Hopefully Mr H will still have a kitchen sink to chuck. Oh well only a few weeks to the results and probably a drought going on by then!

http://www.hl.co.uk/news/articles/investment-trusts-a-review-of-charges Pity they didnt listen to the customers like me who complained about the charges before hand but it does look like they listen to people who vote with there feet. Unfortunately you had your chance HL, Gerry's IT are still walking out the door I did skim the headlines and they looked ok. but not as good as expected according to the market. HL hope is that chun isnt contagious and it looks like the charge U-turn is their way of trying to turn back the tide a bit. Once bitten twice shy!

Whatever he is up too, it will be too late once you know what it is.

Morning QE, not I haven't gone for a run but I am weighing up options of a wet bike ride or a dry cross training session. The wet bike ride means cake and coffee which I like and with Mrs G if shes not too busy. Although a cross training session if done right should make me sweat a tad too but I get to listen to some nice beats to spur me on. As long as you dont intend ripping my teeth out I might keep up the running later in the week. Its Mrs G who likes to run mainly. She started that Race for Life thing and then wanted to "push" it a bit and get a "good time" Was in the top 15 out of a few thousand after pushing to the front at the start last year. Keeps me fit trying to get photos of her along the way. Rain has just stopped!!! Its trying to entice me outside ............ but I have seen the forecast! Nice to see RSA having some positive news but Im still holding off for the results. Not back a Debs door yet?

I think its a temporary relief rise. Mr H wont be able to work his magic by the results due date then the figures will speak for themselves. kitchen sink time!!! Then start afresh

Welcome Mr Hestor. Thought you were ok in that bank so hoping for good things here. £950K helps hope its money well spent.

Well regarding the Somerset levels flooding. As the floods are still here and look to be staying even longer as least flood claims will be defered until the water has gone. Maybe RSA could pay the army to work slowly so that any claims wont hit for another 18 months or so when the water has gone. Might also make a killing on motor boat insurance too. On a more serious note thanks for the update alb1on. Again what is not said often says more.

I have had several "chats" with them and their staff are well trained. They refused to tell me in pounds and pence my costs "As we have over 500,000 clients, unfortunately, we are unable to calculate the individual charges for every client." I asked if all 500,000 were requesting this calculation? I even offered my own calculations so they could check to see if I was "making an error" over my claims that costs will increase substantially and was again referred to the website calculators. So all credit to them for not actually admitting anything and swerving around the real costs. Not seen you in DEBs bb for a while and I apologize for my american spellchecker and own poor typing/spelling skills darting in and out of the bb Ill post you an early bird comment tomorrow if you like you never know it might give you good vibrations!

Well you didnt have to wait too long. You can now buy in and get a better price than post ims update which pushed the price up 4-5% on the news. EM market worries and DGE on a down. This is now getting better priced but so are a lot more things but its better than not having anywhere to put your money

Got a call last night from Interactive Investor regarding my transfer away from HL. Helpful chap who pointed out that there service might be slightly slower as they had been "inundated" with people moving from HL. HL have also refused my request to leave my contract penalty free due to the change in terms which have resulted in vast increases in costs. So I suspect this will now become a legal issue too. Although HL did state that they were "aware of all legislation" Time will tell.

Well it was still making a profit and growing in some areas. Assuming the divi cancellation and/or maybe a sale or two covers the regulatory issues then I think it can start to improve. A lower rebased divi then should allow the capital to increase over time. As you highlight no divi would be better at recapitalising and should support the SP from falling further but that also comes with risks. I suspect more heads will be asked to roll. It will be interesting to see how the remuneration committee act. Strangely they seem to work differently than us share holders suffer on bad performance but boards get more. I prefer some of the renumeration to come from a set share holding therefore knowing that as they cut my divi, their pay is reduced also and the pain is shared. Plus they are more likely to make better longer term decisions that way.

With most disasters, its a chain of small things that all align at the same time to make the disaster happen. Often stopping just one of these prevents the disaster. Looking at RSA, bad weather, Ireland, Regulatory issues are all starting to align hopefully somebody has stopped a link in the chain and it maybe that the divi cut is it. They have said themselves that they need capital and I believe that some sales, maybe 50% rely on having the correct credit rating so there is increased pressure to meet this target so less on paying out the divi. Im sure they are doing the swan thing and paddling like mad to plug the hole. Although the size of that hole is not really known. Ive seen estimates of £200M to £1B. Unfortunately the larger holders dont seem too keen to support a right issue and on past history can you blame them. I suppose the board have to be grateful that that have at least bad choices to make as opposed to no choice. Not long to go now for the details to emerge and maybe it wont be as bad as I fear

chris, I pretty much agree with all your points. The share price was rising on some of the down days. Maybe that's because its seen as already on the ropes so not much further to go. Maybe the divi cancellation has been "priced in" but I didnt think so. Whilst all options are "on the table" it seems to be whats the less worse choice. Nobody wants a rights issue to dilute holding, a cut in the divi, or a fire sale of assets. A takeover might be the favorite option but at what price. At least a divi compensates you for holding whilst going through bad times but it looking like there might be big losses or more than expected long term holders in this

Nice to see new lower charges. 0.55% flat fee and removal of the performance fee. This is one of the things I'm not very keen on as the market can rise overall, giving the manager a kick in fees without actually being anything special. When the market falls back, you don't get that extra fee back on their "poor" performance because "its the wider market" that has fallen. Additionally the £7.5M reduction in this years fee can only help further. Nice yield, reduced costs and trading at a slight discount whats not to like. I cant remember but wasn't this trading on a surplus more recently around +4% So fits a good buy and hold investment. It will be interesting to see how many other IT's revisit costs now RDR impact is on the way although the change in manager might also have been a driver. Invesco Perpetual may have been more open to a reduction in fees to prevent the money following Woodford out of the door. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/10394637/Invesco-Perpetuals-Mark-Barnett-How-Ill-run-Neil-Woodfords-funds.html

I got a message that pointed me to submit a fill or kill order. I suspect that the system was overloaded with the market going down, lots of volatility and lots of Vod deals trying to be submitted on that news out today. Remember they had issues with Royal Mail too. I think they offered to cover losses then. It might be worth raising a complaint. I am voting with my feet, see grumbles about costs. My bucket broker with the supposedly poorer customer service and who dont answer the phone according to HL, worked a treat. Maybe they dont need to answer the phone. Also opened another account to move my funds away too this morning. Bye Bye HL

I originally bought these primarily for the divi and because I thought the falls were too much. Since then more bad news came out and it dropped further. Again I thought it overdone and added. The bad news in Ireland has now been stemmed but capital remains a priority. Previously I assessed the divi prospects for RSA and expected a full cut of the final and further re-basing. Additionally Simon Lees replacement is yet to be announced and whoever is in post will most likely kitchen sink things so can show "improvement" later on. So after reviewing my holdings (and some outside issues and personal interests) I have decided to sell half my shares due to the large risk of the divi cut and bag just under 20% profit on that portion. Its still possible that things can be improved before the announcement and if the divi is not cut I will reassess getting back in. There are reports of sales of parts of the business. The proceeds have been moved over to Vod on the latest news and the fact its still got a divi. Does out of the frying pan into the fire come to mind? So much for being a buy and hold investor. Maybe I need to spend more time away from these bb's GLA