gamesinvestor
15 Oct 2017
Re: Risk Taking ""And UK insurers are investing more in liquid assets, again giving greater returns but also leaving them at risk if they need to sell those assets quickly.""HE - it is indeed stoopid isn't it, or had they intended to type "i-liquid" perhaps?The basic prmise of the risk they are pointing is real though in the bonds that they are committing to, and in the case of LGEN the purchase of other companies pension pots will be pretty ill-liquid (sick and runny), as they will not be bought back by the companies that offloaded them like a hot potato.Games - still while the music is playing you have to get up and dance - isn't that right LK?
Hydrogen Economy
15 Oct 2017
Re: Risk Taking This line in the Telegraph piece had me scratching my head"And UK insurers are investing more in liquid assets, again giving greater returns but also leaving them at risk if they need to sell those assets quickly."H2
gamesinvestor
15 Oct 2017
Risk Taking [link] --- sound familiar?Games
IOMINVESTCOM
12 Sep 2017
Jefferies inches up Legal & General target price but stays cautious Jefferies has increased its target price for insurer Legal & General (LGEN) on the back of positive earnings growth targets but recognises there are caveats to that growth.Analyst Mark Cathcart retained his ‘hold’ recommendation and increased the target price from 249p to 253p as ‘the outlook for L&G’s core business looks strong’, with management predicting 10% earnings growth and 7% dividend growth.‘We recognise a range of caveats for growth and margins, and question the validity of the multi-decade assumption sets that drive L&G’s cash earnings essential for dividend growth,’ he said.He added that the insurer ‘must rely annually on sizeable bulk and back book deals to retain momentum, where regulatory risk is always at play, and with returns dependent on third-party pricing structures in reinsurance’.The shares rose 1.7% to 258.2p yesterday.[link]
Chicken Lips
17 Aug 2017
Re: xd today Not looking the positive LKH6p X DIV fall some claw back tomorrow
LK Hyman
17 Aug 2017
xd today 4.3pLKH on the flybridge
Chicken Lips
13 Aug 2017
L&G Pru Bid - the Times Todays TimesLegal & General, Britain’s third-biggest insurer, is preparing to bid for a £10bn slice of Prudential’s annuity business.L&G has earmarked funds internally to bankroll the deal, according to insiders. A formal move could come within weeks.Prudential said last week that it would merge its two UK businesses — fund manager M&G and its life assurance division — fuelling speculation that Britain’s biggest insurer is about to be broken up. The Pru’s most profitable businesses are now in Asia and America.The Pru is expected to sell £10bn-worth of British pensions. It has already said it would stop selling annuities, following concerns by the City watchdog about sales practices across the industry. The firm also said that the capital costs of running its own businesses were about to rise by 50%. Chief executive Mike Wells is thought to have been seeking City advisers to handle the sale.L&G, led by its outspoken chief executive Nigel Wilson, has been expanding its annuity arm, picking up business from rivals who are scaling back. Most insurers believe new regulations will soon make it too difficult to earn a return from selling annuities.[link]
IOMINVESTCOM
10 Aug 2017
Hargreaves: L&G close to being a £1trn investment company Hargreaves: L&G close to being a £1trn investment companyLegal & General (LGEN) is ‘tantalisingly close’ to being a trillion pound investment company and the market is warming to the story, says Hargreaves Lansdown.Interim results showed profits were up 43% to £952 million and the dividend increased 7% to 4.3p as new pension business soared and the investment business gathered £21.7 billion of new assets.The shares fell 2% to 270.5p yesterday.Steve Clayton, manager of the HL Select UK Income Shares fund, said the group has added a billion pounds to its solvency pot, taking the surplus to £6.7 billion, which he said ‘should settle a lot of arguments about how strong the balance sheet is’.‘All in all, these are a really encouraging set of numbers. L&G is performing strongly and if there are further reserve releases ahead, the group’s capital position can only get stronger. The shares have been hitting new all-time highs in recent sessions, a sign that the market is clearly warming to the L&G story.’[link]
Chicken Lips
09 Aug 2017
The Times In the Times today:Legal & General reported a jump in first-half profits as investors’ money flowed into the insurer’s fund management division, taking assets to almost £1 trillion.The retirement savings unit was the star performer recording a 40 per cent year-on-year rise in profits to £566 million, providing the biggest boost to group operating profits which jumped 27 per cent to £988 million. It was followed by investment management, where profits rose 13 per cent to £194 million.Pre-tax profit attributable to shareholders rose even more sharply and was up 41 per cent to £1.16 billion and was reflected in a 7 per cent rise in the interim dividend payable to investors to 4.3p, up from 4p a year earlier. Profits were further boosted by a £126 million release of cash from L&G’s reserves, which some industry watchers said probably reflected a belief by the insurer that longevity calculations for some of its customers were too optimistic.Despite the rise in profits, Nigel Wilson, the chief executive, was cautious. “Our business has proven to be resilient to political, economic and regulatory uncertainties. We are not being complacent as we recognise that there are currently some structural weaknesses in the UK economy,” he said. Given L&G’s dependence on Britain, he indicated that much of the future growth could come from abroad, in particular the US.“We are replicating our successful UK model with measured expansion in the US, where we are experiencing increasing customer acceptance and an ever improving financial performance,” he said.L&G’s general insurance business reported a 52 per cent drop in profits for the period to £15 million, while profits from its wider insurance unit were flat year-on-year at £151 million.However, these relatively weak performances were more than offset by the bigger investment business. Legal & General Investment Management said that assets under management had grown 13 per cent to £951 million with net inflows for the period of £27.7 billion, against £9.6 billion a year earlier.L&G is the UK’s largest manager of defined benefit and defined contribution retirement schemes and Mark Zinkula, chief executive of LGIM, said the business had continued to gain market share not only in the UK but overseas. “We are experiencing increasing momentum in all of our target international markets, with record net inflows from international clients,” he said.Investors praised the strength of the asset management. Steve Clayton, manager of Hargreaves Lansdown’s select UK income shares, said the group was “tantalisingly close” to becoming a “trillion-pound investment house”.Shares opened higher but quickly gave up its gains to end the day down 4½p at 271½p, valuing the company at £16.2 billion.The retirement savings unit was the star performer recording a 40 per cent year-on-year rise in profits to £566 million, providing the biggest boost to group operating profits which jumped 27 per cent to £988 million. It was followed by investment management, where profits rose 13 per cent to £194 million.Pre-tax profit attributable to shareholders increased even more sharply and was up 41 per cent to £1.16 billion and was reflected in a 7 per cent rise in the interim dividend payable to investors to 4.3p, up from 4p a year earlier. Profits were further boosted by a £126 million release of cash from L&G’s reserves, which some industry watchers said probably reflected a belief by the insurer that longevity calculations for some of its customers were too optimistic.Despite the rise in profits, Nigel Wilson, the chief executive, was cautious. “Our business has proven to be resilient to political, economic and regulatory uncertainties. We are not being complacent as we recognise that there are currently some structural weaknesses in the UK economy,” he said. Given L&G’s dependence on Britain, he indicated that much of the future growth could come from abroad, in particular the US
II Editor
09 Aug 2017
NEW ARTICLE: Why high-yielding L&G is 'too cheap' "The widely-held assumption that we will continue to live for longer was dashed by LSE:LGEN:Legal & General's CEO Nigel Wilson today, triggering an unexpected £126 million windfall for the insurance and investment management group.Rising life ..."[link]
LK Hyman
09 Aug 2017
Re: Half year divi RAC,Good point, m8. Though you could always get yourself one of them Beemer i3 range extender models which has a tiny little petrol engine that recharges the electric motor battery and thus have the best of both worlds. For some reason BMW only provide it with a thimble-sized fuel tank, so you'd have to stop every 60 miles or so to refill it, which seems rather to defeat the object of the exercise.LKH on the flybridge just keep making the GHG regs more demanding and leave the rest to industr
RAConnell
09 Aug 2017
Re: Half year divi LKH,Refuelling with liquid takes less than 5 minutes after 400 miles while recharging with electrons after 250 miles takes how long?Cheers, RAC
LK Hyman
09 Aug 2017
Re: Half year divi RAC,"The rag top (petrol) Beemer is only 18 months hold and a joy to drive."Good to see you're an old-fashioned reactionary and aren't faffing around with an electric motor ... Shell needs all the support it can get from petrolheads!LKH on the flybridge
marktime1231
09 Aug 2017
Tremendous momentum Results as good as could have been expected, the market not over impressed though with 6p off - the divi increase to 4.3p is slightly lower than the 4.4-4.6 hoped for perhaps? Hopefully that is a temporary dip and will swing back, imagine some me-too broker positives in the 280-300 range before ex-div.LGEN is conservative, resilient and yet still has this "tremendous momentum" at which rate it will be p/e < 10 and yielding 6+% before LKH can say value-trap.Added a big chunk to my long term holding this morning at 270p.
RAConnell
09 Aug 2017
Re: Half year divi LKH,Wish all my holdings performed as well as LGEN,Cheers, RACP.S. The rag top (petrol) Beemer is only 18 months hold and a joy to drive.
