TWR - Tower Insurance.

[malus]

As for Tower Australia - I remember it well - one of my successful investments :

Dai-ichi bought it at out at $4.00 a share and I had an average buy price sub $2.00 and my last purchase at $2.00 was less about 7 months prior to the take over .

Yes... Yes Dai-ichi... thanks for the memory refresh PT

[winner69]

A train crash about to happen?

Always some body else's fault these problems - what a bugger eh

Love this bit "This has been further exacerbated by opportunistic advocates who created unfounded fear in regards to application of the statute of limitations. This has resulted in a higher number of disputes and litigation than expected.”

Isn't it their job to manage these sort of things?

[winner69]

Review the dividend - does that mean no dividend for a year

Doesn't seem anybody has wanted to buy them (too many uncertainties?) lately - so until all the mess has been cleaned up no hope of a white knight coming in and ending share holders misery?

[BlackPeter]

Review the dividend - does that mean no dividend for a year

Doesn't seem anybody has wanted to buy them (too many uncertainties?) lately - so until all the mess has been cleaned up no hope of a white knight coming in and ending share holders misery?

Well, with roughly 10 cents down due to the provision it could mean (all other things staying equal) no final dividend this year (saving roughly 7.5 cents per share) and a lower interim dividend next year (say 6 cents instead of 8.5 cents).

Hardly a doomsday scenario, but as you say - we don't know what else might linger in the dark ...

[Hectorplains]

Well, with roughly 10 cents down due to the provision it could mean (all other things staying equal) no final dividend this year (saving roughly 7.5 cents per share) and a lower interim dividend next year (say 6 cents instead of 8.5 cents).

Hardly a doomsday scenario, but as you say - we don't know what else might linger in the dark ...

That's the gist of the NBR interview with Devon funds - “The reality is if it’s not this issue {Chch quakes} it’s an issue around their IT systems. It’s just a never-ending series of things we {Tower} didn’t expect.”

[Lewylewylewy]

If tower have a bad year due to extra costs for that year, but carry the same number of customers over to the next year, does that mean that next year the price will fully recover? ... Or am I being naive? ... Tower is on my list of curios to investigate sometime when i have more play money available.

[winner69]

Perpetual now SSH

Bought heaps at 124/126 in July and probably could believe their good fortune to get another lot at 103

[bull....]

http://www.interest.co.nz/insurance/...re-desperately

potentially more bad news , also a big overseas operator maybe shorting the stock

the end maybe near?

[percy]

http://www.interest.co.nz/insurance/...re-desperately

potentially more bad news , also a big overseas operator maybe shorting the stock

the end maybe near?

Challenging.
Everyday "The Press" reports on ongoing earthquake insurance issues.
The easy claims were settled early.
Now the more difficult [and expensive] claims are trying to be resolved.
In the meantime a lot of the early "settled" claims are resurfacing as the repairs were not done properly.
With re-insurance issues now coming to light TWR's future certainly looks under pressure.
I read a great book on the history of Lloyds.Amazed me how quickly years of profits can suddenly dissappear,to be replaced by huge losses and ongoing liabilties.This was proved in ChCh by AMI going from a great successful insurance company to having the liabilities picked up by the government.Had AMI been floated 10 years ago we all would have lined up for their shares.

[McGinty]

I have my concerns with tower. As a customer I have recently sold a couple of properties and cancelled the insurance policies of both. Usually they pay out the unused premium within 3-5 working days; in both cases when I sold (July and Aug this year) they failed to pay out within 7-8 working days. Only after follow up calls to tower did they approve (or action the payment). I’ve never had this problem before.

On top of this they have started changing their home policies to only allowing excesses of $500 or $1000. When I had my old policies I use to opt for a $50 excess and pay a little more premium. Not an option anymore!

This could be looked at and been seen as management actively making changes to become more efficient and reduce claim expenses. But as a customer I’m going to start actively looking at other insurers. Who knows, my search may uncover that Tower is only aligning itself to all the others.