Rich Snail » 2008

Friends Provident 2008 Results

jacques — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:26:48 +0000

Friends Provident (FP), the parent company of Friends Provident International, saw net losses of £541m ($1 billion) in 2008; more than five times its 2007 loss of £108m. FP has already cut 10% of its workforce in an effort to reduce costs.

Obviously, those results are not the news investors and portfolio holders are happy to hear. Yet, the company financial position and reserve remain strong as they ended 2008 with £850m of cash reserves.

Its chief executive, Trevor Matthews remains positive:

We’re quite pleased with our overall results; this is quite a difficult market. We are cutting costs, we’re concentrating on developing our key business lines both here and overseas so we can take advantage when the markets do turn. We believe we’re in a strong position at the present time.

So to summarize, FP is not in the best of health, but its bottom line remains strong. For those who seek further reassurance, they will be happy to hear that FPI is following the Isle of Man’s Life Assurance (Compensation of Policyholders) Regulations 1991. Hence they are in the same position as Royal Skandia, who addressed this problem in their Open Letter back in October. If you want to know more, feel free to follow the link and read the protection the Isle of Man provides.

Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letter for 2008

jacques — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:57:29 +0000

I just came back from a 3 day week-end and am catching up on work and my reading. This means I haven’t taken the time (yet) to read Warren Buffet’s 2008 letter to Berkshire Hathaway‘s shareholder. It sure is on my to-do list and I’m going to tackle it over this week.

One thing for sure, it is attracting quite a buzz and is giving news-men something to chew on. Should you look for a quick extract and something to reflect upon, do check Fred Wilson‘s take on the 2008 letter. The best I’ve read so far.

Am going back to my catching up. Hope you’ll enjoy this read !

Economist Article Weekly – Hedge Fund in 2008

jacques — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 06:56:03 +0000

With the recent “credit crisis”, many are losing faith in the markets. Should we start panicking and invest in our good safe bonds and blue-chips as in the past, or should we look back on our former presumptions on the financial black-swan of 2007?

This week extract from my Economist reading is time for pruning article. Good read !

HEDGE funds had a brilliant first half of 2008, outperforming Wall Street by 12 percentage points. Hedge funds had an awful six months, producing their worst return on record.

Depending on your point of view, the same statistics can be used to support both those statements. And the dichotomy shows how confused the image of the industry has become.