Okay , so maybe this is just grumpy Monday. This is a helicopter view comment. Here we have a holding company with four main legs - one of which appears to
be at best in a developmental stage- an emerging/ disruptive tech focussed financial services business/es.(?)
But what do we see outcomes wise - three of the four businesses are actually more likely to call for capital than to return capital to shareholders. Discovery has a bus crash on its underwriting and it will be cash hungry - and its overpriced, OUtsurance is obviously buying new business with its discounts which carries more threat than benefit in most instances ( and ridiculous advertizing - watch that come crashing down ) - and the fourth leg actually has nothing to return to shareholders... yet? And worst of all - there is no revealing of any plan to capitalise the fourth leg companies so that they actually can earn the shareholders money... the management of this structure
seem to move with the speed of stunned slugs when it comes to improving the results for shareholders - and the only place they can do it is in the fourth leg. Alas. No action.
The shareholder returns and share price have been going sideways for years. So clinging to the fact that outsurance is unlisted and hastings offers a bit of currency hedging I am still left asking
- what the heck does this structure exist for?
It all has that kind of Remgro look about it "we paid too much and we are just going to read the newspaper until inflation rewards(?) us". The fact that they ramble on about compound growth is irrelevant. That is not the result of management's hard work.