Qbe

[NZmale]

Hey all, a friend of mine has expressed interest in QBE. Any thoughts on this as well... your help is much appreciated!! :)

Really enjoying reading all the threads on here.. some great advice, many thanks to all of you for your advice for us novice sharetraders!

H J

[gambier33]

For an investor, QBE is a must for any balanced portfolio. It's the current pick for the general insurance sector. IAG isn't far behind. Wouldn't be a great traders stock IMO. Cheers

[macduffy]

Just to get the ball rolling.

QBE is the biggest and regarded as the best of the Australian general insurers. Market cap of over $19 billion, trading at a reasonable P/E, respectable dividend yield.
Not a company I've invested in myself, mainly because I don't find insurance accounts very readable by the uninitiated. Management have a good reputation, or so I'm told.

Have a look at their website, accessable from the ASX site.

[NZmale]

thanks a lot guys... so i never got to say thanks earlier... i appreciate it

[POSSUM THE CAT]

NZmale should be an old thread in the archives G Stolwyk was posting a lot of detail about QBE. This my be of some help to you.

[Aaron]

A newbie question. As I am reasonably lazy I haven't done my own research but QBE after a result that disappointed the market dropped in price is currently just over $18. My broker says it is worth $26 and looking at incredible charts its broken the 30 & 60 day moving average. Other indicators such as relative strength and stochastic ocillators seem to be indicating things are in the right direction if I am using the right time periods. I don't know enough to say its something other than a gamble but if you bought now and sold in a month at $20 you could make 10% with hopefully not too much downside as the company pays a 7% dividend and only dropped to $16 in March 2009.
Rather than selling at $20 as it may not reach that high anyway what sort of exit strategy would people suggest. I would probably take the 60 day moving average crossing back over the share price line but what other signals would people recommend and what sort of time periods would you use.

[POSSUM THE CAT]

Aaron do some research on their reinsurance exposure

[Arbitrage]

Is there any reason not to buy QBE? It has fallen a long way in the past 12 months. Sure it has exposure to the bad stuff in Europe and elsewhere, but as a solid company with a lot of potential upside, I suggest it is worth a punt at its current level.

[macduffy]

QBE is out of favour largely because it earns a lot of its profits in that weak and unpopular currency, the USD.

Buying now would amount to a bet in the recovery of the almighty dollar, IMO.

[RRR]

QBE is languishing due to low interest rates and a strong A$-they are just not getting any returns on their investments. They are being punished for doing the right thing but what can they do. Their insurance business is doing just fine. QBE is 8% of my portfolio and 10% down. I am not in a hurry to add more-I think they will get more cheaper. Who knows? They are surely not going to rocket up to $26 any time soon-these investment bankers/brokers have vested interest I reckon(they probably have invested in QBE for a lot higher price than the current share price and talking up the share). QBE is big and it moves slowly. I am happy with the dividend yield and with the DRP. I will be very very patient with this one.

[STRAT]

Hi Yall.
Im with RRR. I wouldnt be buying this one right now.

Theres more than a weak US dollar to the downtrend I think. No direct correlation between the SP and the $US can be seen on the chart ( $US to $AD in green )

[POSSUM THE CAT]

ARBITRAGE check their possible reinsurance liabilities it might shock you.

[Penfold]

I'm with RRR. I don't see any reason the share price will bolt for sometime. But it pays a decent divvie and is a conservative well run company. It makes up 15% of my portfolio.

It is also an analysts nightmare, as its a bit of a black box.

I use it partly as a way to get exposure to the financial sector without buying a bank, as a punt that the us currency will one day recover and as a hedge against a ASX (it tends be a 'safer stock' when things correct).

When you compare it to fellow insurance companies it looks better than most. I find it sad that it didn't get a lot of opportunities to clean up distressed companies post GFC, due to bail outs. I think this was one reason it initially headed south from $24 a year or so ago.

[Arbitrage]

Price seems to be on the rise, for the last week anyway...

[COLIN]

Price seems to be on the rise, for the last week anyway...

I'm not sure what your statement is based on, Arbitrage. QBE is down 1.11% for the past week (ft.com) as compared with a decline of 1.89% for the S&P ASX200, so I suppose you could say it has "outperformed" but I certainly wouldn't be using that comparison as justification for buying! On my reading of the charts I fail to see much semblance of a convincing "buy" signal - except perhaps the Money Flow Index.

[ratkin]

I wouldnt touch them , dont like the ownership structure (nearly all funds) and much of their growth has been by aquisition rather than organic growth, and there are questions about how they can continue this.
Dont trust the brokers , they are connected to the funds who own the stock and always have it as a buy.

Ask yourself , if this stock is so great why does its price keep dropping in a rising market

[Phaedrus]

If this stock is so great why does its price keep dropping in a rising market?Indeed! What the market thinks of a stock is considered by many to be far more important than anything else. Basic Dow theory states that "the market discounts everything" - in other words, the market reflects every possible knowable factor that affects overall supply and demand. This is of course one of the basic tenets of technical analysis. Dow recognised volume as an important factor in confirming price signals and the QBE chart below provides us with a textbook example of this.

QBE was in a strong but decelerating uptrend and as this progressed, it was possible to draw a series of (green) trendlines which were sequentially broken, giving tentative "sell" signals as marked by small red arrows. You can see that none of these were confirmed by volume (as depicted by the OBV trend) until the last one (Jan 2010).

Similarly, the current downtrend is also decelerating, so again it has been possible to draw a series of (red) trendlines which have each been broken in their turn - but NONE of these tentative "buy" signals (marked by small light green arrows) have been confirmed by volume.

QBE has found some support at around $16.50 but technically it is still in a downtrend. It appears to be establishing a trading range (as bounded by the 2 light blue lines). The Slow Stochastic Oscillator will eventually provide a Buy signal, but this is a fairly conservative indicator and such a signal will most likely be preceded by more active indicators. The magenta line is a Trailing stop and the blue line is a Trailing Short Stop. Trailing stops are often the last indicator to trigger a buy or sell signal.

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/tt102/PhaedrusPB/QBE1116.gif

[Arbitrage]

Thanks Phaedrus.
Despite some of the previous posters comments, QBE went against the market trend last week over a couple of days. At $16.68 it was time to buy as the short term trend seemed to be holding. Looking at your data and hearing about the risks from other posters, I think it is an "Accumulate" at the moment. Latest numbers show it broke through $17 and it will be interesting to watch whether this can be sustained.
If not the dividends will come in handy.

[Arbitrage]

Over $18 today. Seems to be breaking upwards.

[POSSUM THE CAT]

Arbitrage Why when most Australian insurers have the posablity of large exposures to claims for flood damage from present floods

[Penfold]

Most of their business is written in other countries. That's why they wanted IAG a couple of years ago, to increase direct exposure to Aussie domestic market. Recent rise is beyond me, but there are a few financial stocks looking pretty under-priced at the moment.

Disc: Hold

[macduffy]

Arbitrage Why when most Australian insurers have the posablity of large exposures to claims for flood damage from present floods

There's always a large "claim event" either happened or about to happen. Insurers limit their exposure to such risks by off-loading through reinsurance .

Pricing for risk is critical to success in insurance and QBE have a good reputation in this regard, seemingly happy to let business pass rather than compete at uneconomic rates. Equally important is return on premium float where recent rises in bond rates won't be doing any harm.

Perhaps the market's decided that QBE just got marked down too far.

[Arbitrage]

Yes it has come down a long way so I was thinking the same thing at $16.68 so started accumulating. It seems to have broken through some of Phaedrus's indicators. Any comments Phaedrus?

[RRR]

No bounce back for QBE after the panic! May be due to the fact the interest rates in the US will stay low and close to zilch, at least until 2013 - The Fed has guaranteed the market! Not good news for the investors and the current dividend yield is about 10%.

Others in my buy watch list is not performing too well either - CPU and WPL!

[Lizard]

Big fall through $10 on todays Market Update. Looks interesting down here, but I find insurers a bit hard to assess. Anyone else follow and have any comments?

[soulman]

Ouch.....Last sold at $14 for a loss. Divy drop to 25 cents in the upcoming report on late Feb doesn't bodes well for QBE going forward. Wished I can short this baby today as tomorow could be another 80 cents drop.

I am starting a new thread called shortings later.

[Jaa]

Big fall through $10 on todays Market Update. Looks interesting down here, but I find insurers a bit hard to assess. Anyone else follow and have any comments?

Wow that's a huge drop. Up almost 10% from the day's low though.

They are a well run, diversified insurer. QBE is a good play on an increase in global interest rates (they can't go much lower!).

A couple of optimistic points stand out for me:



Net earned premium increased by 35% to $US15.3b, forecast $US15b
A normal year's allowance for large individual risk and catastrophe claims is 8.1%, they have allowed 10% for 2012 (estimated in 2011 to be 15%).
Yield on their cash and fixed interest portfolio for 2012 is expected to be 3%.


QBE still has an 8% dividend yield after today's cut and a history of growing net earned premium 20% year on year.

[Aaron]

Nothing really useful to add but ASB Securities has it as a buy at $21.10 as of November last year. Intelligent investor sent a teaser recommending it as a buy and the motley fools in Aussie had it as a buy not so long ago.

I was tempted by the 9% dividend but am still waiting for the next financial crisis to happen.

I guess they generate profits from taking in more in premiums than they pay out as well as investment returns. I imagine they would be required to hold less risky investments but govt bonds in europe and US don't inspire any confidence at the moment. If premiums go up and investment returns improve and natural disasters stop it should be good.
The yield is still close to 9%(8.7%) after the price crash. Maybe I'll buy if the yield hits 10% at $8.70

[winner69]

What a disaster,” said Prasad Patkar (some analyst quoted in the The Age)

Sure is

In spite of all the good numbers mentioned by Jaa the shareprice has been in steady decline since 2007 ... no chart duration looks good .... esp the 10 year one ...... as Mr P says the market giveth and the market taketh away ... sure has

Interesting at these sort of levels eh Liz but one for the traders for a few days I think

[soulman]

Yield might not matters much when they might also announce a cut in the Aug reports of 25 cents to make it annualised at 50 cents. Then a share price in the order of $7 to $8 might be possible. That's a possible scenario.

You are right there Jaa, a nice handy profits if you get in early on open but too much risk for me. I don't like to roll the dice. I would prefer to short QBE from here.

[drillfix]

What a bounce from the $9.88 Low.

But sheebers, these markets have not mercy and forgive nobody for "anything" both right or wrong.

Looking at a FIB scale from the previous day to the low today, it appears a level of around $11.44 could be an approx close or either that or $11.07 appox, or perhaps just in between somewhere (like yeah right)

[winner69]

The insurance industry brings in trillions of dollars in revenues .... and a vast amount of this is channelled (invested) at the industries, companies and technologies that fuel the global warming / climate change threat.

For years insurance companies dodged the bullet of major castastrophes hitting major centres and even though claims were unprecendented (mid 2000's) they did not dip too far into reserves .... but now nature has gone awry with bigger and more regular disasters (prob because of climate change) the whole industry is suffering a profitability crisis ..... and indeed its survival

Some would say getting its due comuppance ..... investing heavily in things bring about their downfall could be called dysfunctional

That was the gist of a speech I heard in 2005 .... always stayed in my mind .... maybe the insurance industry in its current form is not a sustainable business model

Just today's little rave

[Jaa]

I think you are all mad :ohmy:

There is no way you are going to have 2011's disasters and record low interest rates every year.


What a disaster,” said Prasad Patkar (some analyst quoted in the The Age)

Sure is

In spite of all the good numbers mentioned by Jaa the shareprice has been in steady decline since 2007 ... no chart duration looks good .... esp the 10 year one ...... as Mr P says the market giveth and the market taketh away ... sure has

Interesting at these sort of levels eh Liz but one for the traders for a few days I think

The 10yr chart shows a nice continuous increase till the middle of 2007 and then a nice continuous decrease. Still up 45% excluding significant dividends according to Google Finance over this period.

The cause has been the fall in global interest rates, a general decline in stocks and last year a series of unusually expensive disasters. While these all may happen again, they are unlikely too.

[soulman]

I always thought the insurance business to be a classic ponzi. The same with banks.

Off course banks and government goes hand in hand, hence they will get bailout whenever they get in trouble.

[Halebop]

...There is no way you are going to have 2011's disasters and record low interest rates every year...

This is true but also QBE's historical performance of a few years back were against a backdrop of benign claims experience, relatively high interest rates and strong economies. i.e. They have had two polar extremes of operating environment back to back. The long term will be somewhere in between.

Of more concern is that QBE's strategy is to buy premium. They are really not that good at organic growth. As a generalisation their claims approach is a bit meaner than some peers and their processes are designed to minimise expense (They are quite strong at process engineering for cost control but less good at attracting and keeping customers). While low market valuations are useful to them, low profits and a slow growth environment don't support the acquisition strategy, unless they are either happy to issue cheap shares and dilute existing shareholders or increase balance sheet risk.

I like QBE and don't doubt they will continue to do well in the future but I think we are still in the wrong point of the cycle for them. $10 today was a f$%#en low price though! Well done if anyone was brave enough to catch that knife!

[winner69]

QBE was one of Stowyks favourites .... all the way up to the peak .... and he got heaps on this site for ramping it as he did

Hope you stillmiling down on all of us Stollie

[drillfix]

Well here is a intraday snapshot taken with 5 seconds left of trading of QBE.


QBE intraday > http://www.imageurlhost.com/images/mihezibmup100j1ts0vz_QBEintraday.png


Completely missed the FIB call but still, looking at either chart 5, 15, 60, or daily charts a huge Fall is a huge Fall.

Watching the DOM on the left was like watching a game of ping pong at times. up down, up down etc.

Well, tomorrow is another day and I hope some long holders whom bought in higher can recover, although the daily clearly shows QBE in a declining downtrend, mainly trading below the EMA's all the way since June 2011.

Good luck to holders and traders~!

[winner69]

I think you are all mad :ohmy:

There is no way you are going to have 2011's disasters and record low interest rates every year.

.

this guy from pimco reckons interest rates are zero bound
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/global-economy-interest-rates-US-Federal-Reserve-E-pd20120105-Q7W3Q?OpenDocument&emcontent_spectators

[soulman]

Not only that, disaster can get worst in 2012 and so on and so forth.

[winner69]

Not only that, disaster can get worst in 2012 and so on and so forth.

yep .... records are made to get broken eh

[Jaa]

yep .... records are made to get broken eh

They say humans have an innate problem with calculating probabilities.

While 2012 could be more disastrous than 2011, it probably won't.

[Jaa]

This is true but also QBE's historical performance of a few years back were against a backdrop of benign claims experience, relatively high interest rates and strong economies. i.e. They have had two polar extremes of operating environment back to back. The long term will be somewhere in between.

Of more concern is that QBE's strategy is to buy premium. They are really not that good at organic growth. As a generalisation their claims approach is a bit meaner than some peers and their processes are designed to minimise expense (They are quite strong at process engineering for cost control but less good at attracting and keeping customers). While low market valuations are useful to them, low profits and a slow growth environment don't support the acquisition strategy, unless they are either happy to issue cheap shares and dilute existing shareholders or increase balance sheet risk.

I like QBE and don't doubt they will continue to do well in the future but I think we are still in the wrong point of the cycle for them. $10 today was a f$%#en low price though! Well done if anyone was brave enough to catch that knife!

Great post Halebop. Extremes have indeed gone both ways. I would argue the average is way more profitable than the current share price suggests as net earned premium has increased significantly since the mid 2000s.

According to Bloomberg, Chief Executive Officer Frank O'Halloran, 64, has announced 44 acquisitions valued at $7.61 billion since taking over in January 1998.

http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LXNX3Q6S972H01-6II8JM401TH0OP68R7F28CS6ML

QBE's acquisitions have mainly been smaller bolt on ones. Plenty of insurance companies have succeeded with a strategy of buying and harvesting books, Rothbury in NZ comes to mind. Current market conditions should be offering them plenty more acquisition opportunities!

[macduffy]

this guy from pimco reckons interest rates are zero bound

Did I dream this or did I read somewhere this week that Germany issued some bonds at a negative interest rate?ie "Pay us to keep your capital safe because everything else is too risky". I don't think it was meant to be negative "real" interest rates but that may have been the case.

If true, underwriting profits become ever more important for the likes of QBE. I won't be buying just yet!

[macduffy]

No, I didn't dream it!

"Crying at Germany's bond partyMohamed El-Erian

Published 8:05 AM, 11 Jan 2012 Last update 8:06 AM, 11 Jan 2012


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
inShare


FT.com

Another day and another previously unthinkable development becomes reality in Europe. Yet what on the surface appears to be good news for Germany – the record low yield at its latest government debt auction – is actually an indication of growing stress elsewhere in the region.

At Monday’s regularly scheduled auction, the German government sold six-month securities at a negative yield of 0.012 per cent. Investors who bought them made history. Rather than receive interest income for lending money, they were the first to pay the German government for the privilege of converting their cash into securities that, at the margin, are less liquid and subject to mark-to-market volatility.


The outcome should not have come as a great surprise. Negative yields had already occurred in secondary market trading for short-dated German government securities. Moreover, a similar phenomena had taken place in the US at the height of the global financial crisis.


Some Germans may be tempted to welcome the cheap source of funding. But before celebrating too much, they would be well advised to consider both the causes and the implications.

Investors fleeing dislocated government debt markets elsewhere in Europe are attracted to Germany by its solid balance sheet and its fiscal discipline. Moreover, the fruits of years of structural reforms by Berlin are being harvested in the form of vibrant job creation and solid international competitiveness.

Part of this investor repositioning is funded by the sale of other European government debt. Another is being channelled through the banking system, with German banks gaining deposits at the expense of most other European banks.

Operational stress in Europe’s financial system is also a factor. Due to technical dislocations similar to what America experienced three years ago, some banks are forced to scramble in order to get their hands on high quality collateral, helping to push German yields to artificially low levels.

The longer these factors persist, the greater the likelihood that other private sector entities will also be pulled in the short-run into buying German securities. Over a longer time horizon, however, negative yields on the bills will reverse course, especially if conditions improve elsewhere in Europe. Yet, even then, there is a risk that a large portion of the new money pouring into German debt could prove more durable given that it is being hardcoded through investor- and depositor-driven changes to investment guidelines and benchmarks.

German rejoicing for borrowing money at negative rates should thus be tempered by the reality of Europe experiencing an accelerating disengagement of the private sector from the region’s economic integration project. This undermines growth and employment, shifts more of the load to taxpayers, and places even greater demands on creditor and debtor countries alike – all serving to aggravate an already strained process for agreeing on the appropriate policy response and related burden sharing.

At a time of considerable domestic resistance, governments in surplus countries (essentially Germany, but also others such as Finland and the Netherlands), as well as the European Central Bank, will face even greater external pressure to substitute more of their solid balance sheets for the delevering private sector. Meanwhile, debtor countries will be expected to do even more on the austerity front, thereby aggravating internal tensions and sacrificing both actual and potential growth.

Rather than welcome negative yields, Germany should interpret the outcome of Monday’s auction as further indication of the gravity of the situation facing the eurozone as a whole. It is another alarm bell calling for more forceful steps to improve the region’s policy mix, counter banking fragility, and strengthen the institutional underpinning of a “refounded” Europe.


The writer is the chief executive and co-chief investment officer of Pimco.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012. "

[RRR]

Averaging down helped me with this one, up by 35% average buy price. The increase in earnings will follow I think and will drive the share price even higher. Dividend pay out ratio has been slashed which is also a positive. Depreciating Australian $ also helps.

[winner69]

Averaging down helped me with this one, up by 35% average buy price. The increase in earnings will follow I think and will drive the share price even higher. Dividend pay out ratio has been slashed which is also a positive. Depreciating Australian $ also helps.

Whoops - not going to plan

At least you have an apologetic CEO - After the company today said it would suffer an expected $US250 million loss this financial year, Mr Neal said it was ‘‘very frustrating and very disappointing’’ to have announced the third profit downgrade since he became chief executive in mid 2012. ‘‘From an investor point of view we are extremely understanding of the sentiment that they would have and unequivocal for disappointing them this year,’’ Mr Neal said.

http://www.theage.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/qbe-shares-plunge-22pc-on-profit-downgrade-chairs-exit-20131209-2yzyi.html

[blueswan]

I got this from an Aussie Broker website

"We suspect that the guidance will not be achieved in 2014because:

1. The fortunes of the European business may come under pressure as theprofitability of Syndicate 386 reduces and price pressure continues across theEuropean market;
2. The company advised that it has not completed the review of its long tail USbusiness which leaves the possibility of future reserve increases;
3. The force placed mortgage insurance business should continue to dwindle asthe US housing recovery continues and losses may escalate as a consequence ofthe large fixed cost base of this business; and
4. The company’s risk margins remain low so there should be pressure to furtherincrease these.

We maintain our underperform recommendation and share price target is reducedto $11 (from $13). "

[ratkin]

from 2010
I wouldnt touch them , dont like the ownership structure (nearly all funds) and much of their growth has been by aquisition rather than organic growth, and there are questions about how they can continue this.
Dont trust the brokers , they are connected to the funds who own the stock and always have it as a buy.

Ask yourself , if this stock is so great why does its price keep dropping in a rising market

Looks like the Rat was right for once :p

[mark100]

Buy the insurance brokers, rather than the insurer! Take a look at the 10 year chart of AUB vs QBE

[percy]

from 2010

Looks like the Rat was right for once :p

Well I always learn from your posts.
Wish you would post more often.

[blueswan]

THere is a good article on QBE on Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/business/qbe-shares-plunge-on-profit-warning-20131209-2z1to.html

[peat]

That's one hell of a gap

Be very interesting over the next few months to see how much of it gets filled.

5173

A sad chart over the last five years but interesting to note the possibility of a triple bottom if it holds around the $10 level

5174

[winner69]

Bit if background to the problems at qbe .....maybe still bad stuff to come out

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/business/qbes-scramble-to-claw-back-credibility-20131213-2zcxq.html

[winner69]

That's one hell of a gap

Be very interesting over the next few months to see how much of it gets filled.

5173





A sad chart over the last five years but interesting to note the possibility of a triple bottom if it holds around the $10 level

5174

The 10 buck mark held peat

Maybe is a good sign over the break ...esp if the movers and shakers take a break

[winner69]

Oh dear another profit warning and everybody pissed off again

Peat - did I see another 'one hell of a gap' down?

And the possibility of a quadruple bottom now - that's good

Will the 10 dollar mark hold this time.

Apparently no profit upgrades in the last 5 years - only downgrades - what a joke. You think they would set lower expectations but that would stuff the shareprice up so why do that as the analysts believe your forecasts anyway

I would hazard a guess heaps more bad news embedded in QBE

Will keep on watchlist - one day sometime it might be worth a punt

[okay]

They seem to be good at identifying problems "after" it has well and truly bitten them, which is kind of contrary to the skill set needed for the business they are in:).

[PSE]

Anyone else holding QBE?, I have been averaging in since the GFC.
It has possibly become too big a part of my portfolio as I doubled down on it - picking up heaps at $10-$11 when winner was slagging it off. A pretty average return for me because I didn't take the advice of posters on here that it was a black box.
I won't buy a company with a balance sheet I can't understand again.
A shareprice which has fallen and a positive analyst recommendation is not really enough to go on, hopefully I have learnt my lesson now as the recovery has dragged on. I have pretty much just matched the return of the ASX200 which has been great but I could instead have held STW.
This year we have started to see some signs of life, it seems a huge stretch for the company to return to the giddy heights of $30 a share (or $1.28 dividend) when so much dilution from equity raisings has occured. The analysts seem to think the balance sheet has been repaired and the outlook is good for the next few years.
In the absence any other decent investments in the financial sector I will continue to hold although the increase in shareprice has made me nervous and tempted to sell a few.
If the company could return to it's pre-GFC profitability of 1.8b per annum and be valued again as a growth company then selling out at $14 would be premature. I just have no idea of how to get a handle on the likelihood of this.
Of all my stories for buying companies this is the weakest as I was really just starting out. There has to be signs of a turnaround before you buy.
In this case I was buying just as the successful growth by acquisition turned out to be a lemon. The CEO Neal has appeared very pale at times, I think he had an uneviable task over previous years.
Yeah excuses don't taste too good to shareholders.
I understand insurance is very competitive at the moment, a bad part of the cycle. An increase in bond yields in the US would be nice for QBE as we have watched the quantitative easing with horror.
Would be interested in the views of other holders or naysayers :)

[PSE]

I held it for 2 years and sold out about 6 monin mhs ago after getting sick of the excuse's.
Take a look at there balance sheet it has been destroyed by poor underwriting.
A big proportion of their income comes from US treasury bonds which are returning very low yields and I can not see this changing to much any time soon.
I think okay sums up the situation quite nicely in post 56
Thanks Snaps,
I will try to get my head around that balance sheet and maybe just sell on principle if I can't. Otherwise I am just gambling which is not ideal.

[winner69]

QBE back around the $10 mark

Seems low interest rate environment the problem now (affecting returns and other stuff) - what a surprise

Hard to see things getting better for insurance companies in the near / future term

[winner69]

Global climate change impacts the biggest challenges / threats to the future viability of the insurance industry

Certain irony really - in the past the same industry were the bigger shareholders in oil, mining etc companies whose activities contributed heaps to climate change

[silu]

QBE back around the $10 mark

Seems low interest rate environment the problem now (affecting returns and other stuff) - what a surprise

Hard to see things getting better for insurance companies in the near / future term

The only insurer in my portfolio is IAG and I'm really long on this one with all dividends getting reinvested. I wouldn't go into insurance stock at all at the moment.

[winner69]

Just as things were settling down for QBE another bad announcement stuffs it up

They don't seem to have changed their ways

[peat]

Anyone know what their exposure is to Texas and Florida ??