Member Info for Spikeyj

i'm still here, daniel, with reasonable size. - just busy picking raspberries and courgettes and blackberries and now the first of my v. tasty tomatoes. i love this time of year, harvest plus foraging too. vod taking care of itself, hopefully.

on friday.

... not yet, it seems ...

AVIVA PLC 2017 INTERIM RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT Mark Wilson, Group Chief Executive Officer, said: "Aviva is delivering. For the fourth year in a row we have grown operating profit, up 11%, reflecting positive performances across Aviva's businesses world-wide. As a result, we are increasing the interim dividend per share by 13% to 8.4p. "The benefits of our geographic and product diversity are clear and Aviva has numerous sources of growth. In the first half of 2017 we increased sales right across the group and delivered strong growth in operating profit in the UK, Europe and Aviva Investors. "We are growing and investing in the UK. We have grown top line sales and bottom line profit in UK general insurance, pensions, annuities and protection. Our digital business continues to make progress, making insurance simpler and more convenient for customers. "We are getting the basics right. Serving customers well, keeping a tight control on costs and investing in our businesses." Profit · Operating profit up 11% to £1,465 million (HY16: £1,325 million) · Operating EPS up 15% to 25.8p (HY16: 22.4p) · IFRS profit after tax £716 million (HY16: £201 million) Capital · Solvency II coverage ratio of 193%1 (FY16: 189%) · Capital surplus £11.4 billion1 (FY16: £11.3 billion) · Operating capital generation £1.1 billion (HY16: £1.2 billion) · IFRS net asset value per share 412p (FY16: 414p) Cash · Interim dividend up 13% to 8.4p (HY16: 7.42p) · Cash remittances up 56% to £1,170 million (HY16: £752 million) · UK Life special remittance of £315 million, on track towards £1 billion target by end 2018 with £565 million total special to date · Holding company liquidity £1.7 billion2 (February 2017: £1.8 billion) Growth · General insurance net written premiums up 11%3 to £4,688 million (HY16: £3,991 million) · Value of new business up 27%3 to £596 million (HY16: £448 million) · Aviva Investors fund management operating profit up 45% to £71 million (HY16: £49 million) · UK Life platform funds up 27% to £16.5 billion (FY16: £13.0 billion) · Total group assets under management £475 billion (FY16: £450 billion) Combined ratio · General insurance combined operating ratio 94.5%4 (HY16: 95.7%)

? under the cosh, again, partly from £ strength?

(o/t for oex, apols to rest of board) hi span, it looks like HFW have sent out an email this afternoon to a bunch of WRN holders with a small update about the process. you should have one, but contact HFW if they've missed you out.

there does seem to be some gently buying interest in the run-up to the half-year results. dunno if that is based on anything more than vague sentiment or ??

well, brousse topped up just under 290 in late april, so he appears to think that JLG is still on course.

good stealth share. (like playing grandma's footsteps. when no-one is looking, the sp creeps that extra bit forward ...)

it seems to affirm her credentials as a gradualist cost-cutter, rather than a revolutionary. more 'exciting' would have been a cut to the dividend, to pump into pharma devt more rapidly.

a little smidge today.

although she was the internal candidate, perhaps she is less wedded to the conglomerate model that woody feared. walmsley may yet break this one up by stealth?

probably.

i was pleased with that update, and apparent direction of travel, and it's nice to be up a bit, but i am a bit surprised voda couldn't hold on to more of the gain. perhaps i underestimated how much anticipation had already been priced in during the run up. still holding a decent wodge here, hoping to dispose of some at 250p if & when, but with more to go between 260/270 (if in a year). (i would have preferred to see the UK aspects still held back but the german ops doing better. ah well.)

(ShareCast News) - Several companies about which investors have many questions are due for updates on Friday, including quarterly numbers from Vodafone and AO World plus interim results from Acacia Mining, providing equity investors plenty to chew on ahead of next week's results season feasting. Vodafone's update should give investors news on the performance of key overseas markets, such as the Indian mobile telecoms market, maybe covering recent City speculation about job cuts in Germany, recent price moves in Spain/Italy, and an update on EU roaming impact. Barclays forecast service revenues growth of 1.6% in the quarter versus 1.5% in the fourth quarter of last year, as the leap year effect and roaming/accounting changes impact the report result. "Within the mix we see German momentum remaining steady with a modest acceleration in service revenues. Italy remains solidly positive, although with slightly lower growth QoQ as the market remains competitive," analysts said, with UK growth challenging and deteriorating to 5.1% though Spain "should remain broadly stable". In the Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific Barclays expects growth to remain in the 7-9% range, with particular strength in Turkey/Egypt. UBS, which forecasts 1.5% organic service revenue growth, expects Vodafone to flag a drag effect from EU roaming cuts for the coming quarter but for it to re-iterate full year guidance of 4-8% EBITDA growth and for equity free cash flow of >€5bn. "With the stock offering a 5.9% dividend yield that is covered by EFCF even post spectrum costs, we think a reassuring trading update and re-iteration of FY-18 guidance should drive a further re-rating of the shares and lead to the dividend yield compressing towards the sector average of 4.5%," UBS said.

appears on hargreaves list of most viewed shares today.

http://www.lse.co.uk/ShareNews.asp?shareprice=LLOY&code=djcutilo&headline=Bank_of_England_opens_up_payments_systems_to_spur_fintech

nice return of sentiment to biotech valuations, but frankly unfathomable what is shifting that. (hope it is a good omen, in the longer run, for the moderate wodge of arix i have these days.)

"Shares in AstraZeneca, after falling on Thursday following the Israeli report, rose 4.6 percent on Friday to close at $33.87 on the New York Stock Exchange." well, it's not dull.

cheers!