Member Info for Nick1234

This aged well.

Griff, to be honest if Commercial GWP is only down 8% that is a pretty good result with the market how it is at the moment. The Commercial general insurance market is the softest it has been for a generation. Reductions of 20%, 30% and more are frequently been seen. Minus 8% implies a decent amount of new business and/or pushing rate through on some accounts that warrant it.

Superb results and a nice Broker target of 725p to boot.

Love the £1.2bn share buyback. I know there will be the usual arguments about whether this is the best use of funds but at nearly 10% of market cap it should have a positive impact on the share price.

A very solid update. Surely the discount to NAV starts to close this year?

I would expect a deal to get done. We could also see another suiter emerge. I'm sure Chubb, Generali, Allianz, AXA etc will all be interested given how profitable BEZ is and their expertise in specialty lines.

Yep i've sold too. Bought in at around £16.50 2 months ago so 33% profit. Not a life changing amount but one of my better moves this year.

New one today: Berenberg raises Resolute Mining price target to 65 (46) pence - 'buy'

It'll be 4% cheaper on 25th September when it goes ex-divi. Obviously we don't know what will happen to the share price between now and then, but it's important to remember it will drop when it goes ex divi.

I'm guessing if you are here, you are interested in investment income, it's just whether you take the capital hit now and get the divi or wait til it goes ex- divi and bendfit from a higher yield.

Also this week:

UBS: £21.75 target (Buy)

Golman Saches: £23.06 target (Buy).

So 3 broker ratings this week at an average of £23.02, or 40% above today's share price.

Share price on 12 March when buyback announced: 239p.

Share price today when buyback completed: 232.5p.

Approx £203m shares bought back, 3.4% of the total number of shares.

Might as well start the next tranche now.

My prediction: Reeves will give the Budget in November. She'll announce a load more spending and poorly targeted tax rises on pensioners, homeowners and the middle class. It'll go down like a lead balloon, UK bond yields will spike and then Stamer will have to get rid of her.

I can't see the Labour government lasting the full 5 years and Reform will get in.

Another 2.5% down today.

The whole net zero rebellion seems to be gaining traction. Reform are leading the way in the polls now, and they have said they would focus on fossil fuels/North Sea oil and gas.

Coca Cola in the US owns Costa. CCH bottles Costa products in some countries and it has been a growth area in recent years.

I guess it depends who buys it as to whether it is a negative or positive for CCH, but if the new owner has a preferred bottling company and transfers production to them then it would be a big hit to sales.

was it warren buffet who said, "there never just one ****roach in the kitchen."

who knows what the audit will turn up.

Does JD still own a third of Applied Nutrition? Their shares are up over 9% today.

I don't regard 1.75% as a decent divi. Luckily, BEZ pays than that. 3.1% based on current yield. Not life changing but better than a kick in the nuts.

The commercial insurance market is so soft at the moment, probably the softest it has been in the last 30 years.

It should be remembered that Beazley's loss ratio last year of 80% was exceptional. A loss ratio in the mid 80s (as forecast for this year) is still very very good. Obviously competitors have seen that BEZ are making a ton of money and want a piece of the action so are being more aggressive with new business quotes and driving down premiums and therefore profits.

This is still a very well run business that makes a lot of money. It's not expensive by any metric and there is a buyback ongoing and a decent divi too. I'm very tempted to buy back in on this dip.

My school of thought definitely isn't Rachel from Accounts. It's more if we don't do something quick then we are up the creek without a paddle and will have to go cap in hand to the IMF.

The public finances are in an absolute mess. We have £3trillion of debt and that is rising by £500mllion every single day I.e. a £150 billion annual deficit. You could scrap HS2, net zero and every single immigrant hotel and we would still be spending £10s of billions per year more than we are taking in tax. Huge decisions are needed on a range of fiscal issues. Spending must come down, but the left wing of the Labour party has vetoed that as we saw with the welfare Bill. Economic growth is the way out of it, but where is that going to come from?

Stammer and Reeves have been awful but 14 years of mismanagement by the Tories added a trillion to the debt pile, despite all their claims of austerity.

Our borrowing costs are now more than almost all of mainland Europe including Portugal and Greece. If that keeps on rising their could be a full on debt crisis.

Also, it really isn't morally acceptable to keep adding billions to the public debt and get the children and grandchildren to pay for our profligacy.

I also gree that the triple lock should go. There is absolutely no reason why the rise in the state pension should be linked to the average increase in earnings. A double lock of 2.5% or the rate of inflation is more than adequate.

Young people must start making provisions for their retirement now. They can not rely on the state to fund their retirement and the earlier they start the better

Auto-enrollment has been a huge success, but there needs to be more education for young people around pensions, investments, retirement, and personal finances in general.

Someone in their early 20s putting 10% into their pension (5% employer contributions and 5% employee) would have a huge pension pot by their mid 60s, even a relatively low earner. Time in the market and the power of compounding can not be understated.