The ongoing saga of woe at Saga

As undoubtedly many of you know, a saga is ‘a long story of heroic achievement, especially a medieval prose narrative in Old Norse or Old Icelandic’. Meanwhile in the UK financial world, in my opinion there is an ongoing saga at Saga plc (SAGA), a company which may describe itself as “a British company focused on serving the needs of those aged 50 and over” and hence sound very relevant, but which has had even a peer shocking 95% share price fall over the last five years. So why has its first half numbers today pulled the stock down over 15% this morning to what looks like a new share price low?

#SAGA – trading update, “on-track to return to an underlying profit for the 2022/23 financial year”

The travel industry has been hit hard but I believe it will bounce back - Saga offers good exposure to that

Whilst you might think that I’m mad to even be looking at the travel sector at the current time, I believe that often the fear of what might happen outweighs the actual reality, and often things don’t turn out as badly as people thought they might – the commodities sector during the first half of 2020 being a good example!

#SAGA – H1 motor & home insurance sales “expected to be broadly flat”, Travel cash burn “lower end of the guidance”

Saga is well positioned to recover from Covid, with its customers being amongst the first to be vaccinated: BUY

Any regular reader of this website may have noticed that I have become fairly bullish on the travel sector recently, although mixed with a degree of caution as well as there are still plenty of risks for these businesses.

The money raising saga at Saga

Last month I wrote about the insurance and travel name Saga (SAGA) and its announced money raising, with money being tapped from the new non-executive chair (at a premium!) as well as existing shareholders and the market. At the link, I called it 'ten out of ten for commitment' and on Friday we had the results of the money raising...

#SAGA – 43.63% open offer take-up, remainder with conditional placees

A mad or genius move at Saga?

Apparently you can't travel with SAGA (SAGA) until you are 50 unless you are over 40 and travelling with someone 50+. Well I am going to have to wait a few more years then to have that option for my summer holiday, as I don't really fancy asking my parents if I can tag along with them. Still, I am sure SAGA would be happy for anyone to buy its shares irrespective of their age...although as they are sitting at approximately one-tenth of their IPO price it would have been a pretty harmful decision irrespective of your age...

#SAGA – “advanced stage of a prospective £150 million equity capital raise”

#SAGA – AGM trading update, “available cash balances have reduced by £62m from £92m at 31 March 2020”

#SAGA – insurance business “remains largely unaffected by COVID-19”, but Travel business significantly impacted

#SAGA – “temporarily suspend operations of our Cruises until 1 May 2020”

Lager, Aga and Ga-ga, But perhaps Not Saga at the Moment

Hello Share Takers. It’s said life has four stages; Lager, Aga, Saga and Ga-ga. Saga (SAGA) is a company which focuses on the older customer. It began with travel packages for the grey market and then went into insurance. Luckily, given the present circumstances, it is now heavily into insurance...

#SAGA – updates on virus Travel business impact, completes introductory care agencies sales

#SAGA – agreement to sell motorcycles insurance broker Bennetts for £26m EV as seeks to focus on “core branded business”

#SAGA – expects FY adj. PBT “in line with our previous guidance” in “challenging external environment”

Saga Works Harder to Garner Customers but the Headwinds Could be Too Strong

Hello Shares Slayers. As a pensioner myself, I like to keep abreast of how a company which is known for focusing on the oldies is getting on. But the latest figures from Saga (SAGA) and the shaky outlook for the travel industry make me want to avoid these shares...

#SAGA – trading “broadly in line with expectations”, “challenging trading conditions”

Saga – because I am not Bernie Madoff...mea culpa

Whilst I wish the newly appointed Intu (INTU) CEO the best of luck (but surely as the old CFO he knows all the structural issues and a lot more) and I see Debenhams (DEB) continues to try to change whilst having materially negative like-for-like sales (not easy to say the least), the key regulatory news statement for me today has to be Saga (SAGA)...

The Saga Saga Continues as the Big Insurer Takes Steps to Bump Up Profits

Hello, Share Squeakers. October is a fraught month for me. That’s because I spend too much effort trying to get better insurance deals for my home and car. The trouble is that comparison sites nearly always fail me because my house is rather unusual and sits by the sea. They can’t seem to grasp that because we are on top of a lofty cliff, we can never flood. Any road up, I know from my perambulations around the net that competition among insurers and their brokers is horrendous. And that’s what seems to be troubling Saga (SAGA) just now.