Member Info for Nick1234

Funny you should say that. Mines due v shortly and it's gone up 25% on last year, got them down down to 20% with a bit of haggling but no more. Did a quick shop around but nothing better elsewhere.

Overall the customer experience has been awful this year, as well as a hefty above-inflation price rise.

If they were being very aggressive on commercial combined or motor fleet I would be concerned. These risks frequently come to market and there is very little fat to cut away at and it is hard to differentiate between the big players like Aviva, Allianz, AXA, RSA and Zurich on anything other than price. Its a race too the bottom and insurers often get in a Dutch auction.

Much better to be targeting niche lines where there are fewer players and rates have risen significantly over the last couple of years. Beazley have a COR of around 87% which is fantastic in modern day insurance. Who wouldn't want a bit of that.

The BoD made a conscious decision to shrink the business in 2021/22 by selling non-core overseas assets. They are returning that capital to shareholders through buybacks and divis.

Aviva are definitely looking to grow the business organically. On the General Insurance side, they have recently invested a huge amount of money in specialty lines like cyber, management liability, marine, engineering, group personal accident and the like. They have seen how the likes of Beazley have grown at a very rapid and profitable rate in this space and want a piece of the action.

I have it on very good authority that Aviva are being very aggressive on new business in the specialty lines, especially cyber insurance. Personal lines motor and household is simply not that profitable any more, look at DLG. The margins are wafer thin and the book is admin heavy. More than happy for Aviva to focus on high margin commercial specialty business providing it is being underwritten sensibly.

Hi Iain, read up on Uncrossed Trades and this should explain things.

It probably won't make too much difference on where the share price opens first thing on Tuesday (which is the next trading day) as there are a million and one things that could impact on the price between now and then.

Third attempt at staying above £30.

Could stay above £30 with strong March figures and with Easyjet results due in a couple of weeks.

Wasn't expecting such a big jump in the divi. Great company to be in.

Any thoughts on this:

"Travelodge bids to team up with councils to build 300 hotels
Hotel chain Travelodge is writing to 220 local authorities across Britain proposing a joint development partnership aimed at stimulating regeneration and economic growth.

Travelodge said it has identified that it can expand its UK hotel network with a further 300 locations for new hotels.

The company said the expansion programme could represent an investment of around £3bn for third-party investors and create more than 9,000 jobs across the UK.

Steve Bennett, Travelodge's chief property and development officer, said:

In the current climate, local authorities are under extreme pressure to invest in their economy and support regeneration projects.

This is why we are today writing to 220 local authorities to offer our support, as we can make a real difference.

Our effective, innovative co-partnership development deals are spearheading regional economic growth and providing a solid long-term revenue stream.

Britain is now a nation of budget travellers, with more of us choosing to stay in budget hotels than any other hotel type, and this trend is set to grow, which is why we are looking to expand our UK hotel network with a further 300 hotels."

Whitevanman, I wish my wife was that philosophical!!

We're being dragged down with all the other financial stocks today due to worries that Deutsche Bank might default.

Still, I agree with the opening post, i was expecting a decent rise going in to the ex-divi day on Thurs. All things considered, this share is v. Cheap, despite the headwinds.

I have also bought. I would fully expect a rise going in to ex-divi day in a couple of weeks.

Much better today. The fall in the price of oil should help here.

JP Morgan: "This is not a crisis in the making."

Citi: "No Read across to UK shares."

It's hard to know how serious this is and whether it could spread wider/worldwide. Or is it just a massive tree shake making people panic and sell their shares cheaply.

That's one of the hardest things I find about investing in shares, not knowing which noise can be ignored and which to be fearful of. It's hard not to do anything when prices are down and panic sets in. Our natural reaction as humans is to act if something is going wrong, but actually sometimes it is best to do nothing at all.

Sentiment in the airline sector was lifted by news German carrier Lufthansa returned to profit in 2022 as revenue jumped on doubled passenger numbers, although they remained below pre-pandemic 2019 figures.

The Cologne, Germany-based airline said it made a net profit of €791mln in 2022, from a loss of €2.19bn in 2021. However, this is still 35% lower than a pre-pandemic net profit of €1.21bn achieved in 2019.

Revenue jumped 95% to €32.77bn from €16.81bn and was 10% lower than €36.42bn in 2019. Passenger numbers more than doubled to 101.8mln from 46.9mln, but was 30% below 2019's 145.2mln. The load factor improved to 80% from 62% but was below 83% in 2019.

Shares in Lufthansa jumped 5.5% and helped lift shares in British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (LSE:IAG) by 2% and Wizz Air Holdings PLC (AIM:WIZZ) by 2.8% and easyJet PLC by 3%.

1,300p is 58% above today's share price.

Watches of Switzerland had its target price cut by Jefferies although it said it continues to see it as an “attractive proxy” for watches.

Analysts at the bank cut its target price to 1300p from 1500p, although it remained a buy on the Rolex seller.

“We remain buyers of the name as we continue to see the investment thesis as compelling and unique in terms of resilience and opportunity,” said the broker.

Jefferies said it expects Watches of Switzerland to meet guidance for the fiscal year 2023, while waiting lists for luxury watches give it “confidence on resilience of sales.”

“Whilst waiting lists have always been a feature for some models of Rolex, through 2021 and 2022 there was an expansion in both the breadth of waiting lists and their length which are 8+ years for some models.”

Watches of Switzerland also has a strong opening pipeline for 2024, including expansion at Bond Street and a new store in New York.

Decent results in the current economic climate. Hopefully the share price will kick on a bit now.

Nice 8.5% increase to the final dividend.

So what was it about then?

Was expecting an announcement on when the next tranch of the share buyback will commence but can't see anything. Unless I missing it?

Very glad I topped up just before we went ex-divi. Divi arriving soon plus share price growth is a great combination.

500p coming soon I think.