I have to confess that although M&A moves in a very volatile and largely bearish summer London stock market should have been very enticing, the RSA (RSA) share rally and decline have totally passed me by. But now that the deal with Zurich Financial is off, what does this mean for the share price after the drop?
Bit of a Swiss surprise today with the news that Zurich Insurance is ending its 550p bid for Royal & Sun Alliance (RSA). Normally when a proposed deal falls apart it is because the bidder has found something dodgy in its detailed due diligence – and let’s face it insurance accounting is opaque at best. However this time the issue is all with the seemingly not-so-prudent Swiss with the management at Zurich noting ‘the deterioration in profitability in certain parts of the(ir) General Insurance business’ which it has to sort out first before it could even consider completing a bid on another insurance company like RSA.
Hello Share Sweepers. Bloomin’ Heck! While I still agonise over whether I should accept the offer for Dragon Oil (DGO) shares from a bigger oil company, I get landed with another difficult choice over an insurance giant. That insurance set-up is RSA (RSA) the old Royal Insurance lot.
Hello Share Tweakers: Royal Insurance, or RSA Insurance (RSA) as they're known these days, has been a loser in my bag. I've held them ever since I dated Boudicea. But they've done nothing big for me.
RSA (RSA), once gloriously known with Shakespearean imagery as Royal Insurance and Sun Alliance, - before the sum of the parts were merged and reduced down to a mere abbreviation - has announced a rights issue to ensure that it has enough capital in the balance sheet to keep regulators content. It is not a share that I have bothered to look at previously, but the scent of rotted shareholder value draws me in for a closer look.
Hello Share Fans: We've had some awful weather. Floods and wind all over the place, causing a lot of damage.
Hello Share Dabblers: You have to be so careful in Shareland not to put too much dough into one stock. It is the biggest mistake I often make and I need to call a halt.
