It looks like the ESURE applications have been scaled back - unfortunately to an amount that is hardly worth the bother. (40% @£2.90).

Esure Website

Sheila's Wheels Website

Recent Broker notes

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Recent Market news

Esure Fundamentals (ESUR)

Shore Capital Sell 239.30 - - Reiterates

JP Morgan Cazenove Overweight 239.30 299.00 295.00 Reiterates

Barclays Capital Overweight 239.30 - - Retains

I'm out. Sold out this morning. I didn't like the interims one little bit. Nasty loss but medicine taken. May look again if it gets below 220.

Preliminary Results

Highlights

· Gross written premiums up 6.3% to £550.3m (2014: £517.8m)

· In-force policies up 2.8% to 2.001 million (2014: 1.946 million)

· Combined operating ratio 5.9ppts higher at 97.8% (2014: 91.9%)

· Profit before tax up 29.7% to £134.0m (2014: £103.3m)

· Underlying profit before tax1 down 22.7% to £82.9m (2014: £107.2m)

· Final dividend of 7.3 pence per share, which together with the interim dividend of 4.2 pence per share, takes the full year dividend to 11.5 pence per share. This reflects a payout ratio2 of 70% of underlying earnings per share, inclusive of a 20% special dividend

· Gocompare.com3 income up 5.0% to £119.0m (2014: £113.3m); profit before tax down 9.0% to £23.3m (2014: 25.6m) as the Group invests in its strategic objectives

· Well capitalised under Solvency II with Group coverage at 123% (137% prior to Group final dividend) and Solo coverage at 138%

Up 12% on this news:

http://news.sky.com/story/1719721/bidders-go-compare-numbers-on-esure-takeover

StockMarketWire.com
esure (ESUR) said no approach has been received by the company concerning a potential offer.

esure said it continues to focus on its strategic review of Gocompare.com Holdings as announced on 7 June 2016, in order to maximise value for all shareholders and will announce results of the strategic review in due course.

RBC note today:
"Strategic review results in demerger of Gocompare
esure announced that it will pursue a demerger of Gocompare as a result of the strategic review that it launched in June 2016. Subject to approvals, the deal should occur in Q4 2016 and will incur costs of c£19m. esure believes that Gocompare as a standalone entity will be able to attract more technology focused employees who will be more interested in joining a digital company. Prior to the demerger being completed, Gocompare is expected to draw down on a £75m debt facility and pay a cash dividend of £63m to esure. Following the demerger, esure will target an SCR of 130-150%, an increase on the SCR of 126% at 1H16, and sees no change to current dividend policy. We believe the increase in esure’s solvency ratio should help esure’s standing as a standalone motor insurance business vs peers.
Investment thesis crystallising
Our positive investment thesis was borne of our belief that the market fundamentally undervalues Gocompare as part of esure. We have written about this extensively in several notes including ‘Good value when you Gocompare: Initiating at Outperform’ and ‘What happens when you Gocompare’. We believe that today’s announced demerger should help shareholders to crystallise value in the company. If we were to value esure’s earnings excluding Gocompare at 13x, this implies that Gocompare would trade on 14x 2017E earnings, a large discount to the P/E multiple of Moneysupermarket (20x 2017E).
Scenario analysis – range between 310p and 394p per share
We re-run our scenario analysis from our 7th June 2016 note and generate a valuation range between 310p and 394p. Arguably, Gocompare’s only real comparable is Moneysupermarket, given the price comparison business that they both focus on. If we value Gocompare’s 2017E earnings at a 20% discount to Moneysupermarket’s multiple and value the remainder of esure’s earnings at 13x, we generate a 310p valuation (our base case). However, if progress continues to be strong, then potentially Gocompare could re-rate to a Moneysupermarket multiple which would suggest a valuation of 338p. If we use the trading multiples of internetfocused peers such as Zoopla, Autotrader, and Rightmove, this leads to a valuation of 394p per share, however, we would argue that this is more of a blue sky scenario."

Gocompare.com on road to stock market

The multimillionaire founder of esure hailed Gocompare.com as his “best investment ever” as the insurer said that it would spin out the price comparison website in a stock market listing that could value the business at as much as £500m. Esure told the market yesterday that after a strategic review it had concluded that separating the companies was the best option for both and would make it easier for Gocompare.com to bring in leading technology industry managers.

Shareholders in esure will be given new shares in Gocompare on a pro rata basis, meaning that Sir Peter Wood, who owns just under a 31% stake in esure, will be the biggest shareholder in Gocompare when it lists in London. The flotation of Gocompare is expected to take place before the end of the year and the website is expected to attract an independent valuation of between £400m and £500m. Esure said the costs of separating out the price comparison site would come to £19m.

Complete article: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/gocompare-com-on-road-to-stock-market-x6jphqdqr

esure completes demerger of Gocompare.com

esure Group plc ("esure" or the "Group") has today completed the demerger of Gocompare.com Group plc ("Gocompare.com") from the Group.

The shares in Gocompare.com (ticker "GOCO") were admitted today to the premium segment of the Official List and to trading on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.

Sir Peter Wood, Chairman of esure Group plc, commented:
"The process of demerging Gocompare.com from esure Group has now been completed. Both businesses will benefit from being able to focus on their distinct strategies, with Gocompare.com operating as a leading UK price and product comparison website and esure Group as a leading UK provider of motor and home insurance."

Stuart Vann, Chief Executive Officer of esure Group plc, commented:
"As outlined at our 1H 2016 results, we continue to make excellent progress across our strategic initiatives. In the first half of 2016 we grew gross written premiums by over 16% and we remain very well positioned for further growth in our market."

StockMarketWire.com
esure Group reports continued strong growth in the nine months to the end of September and says it remains on track for the full year.

Highlights
- Gross written premiums up 15.9% to £499.0m (YTD Q3 2015: £430.5m)

* Motor gross written premiums up 18.3% to £430.6m (YTD Q3 2015: £364.1m)

* Home gross written premiums up 3.0% to £68.4m (YTD Q3 2015: £66.4m)

- In-force policies up 5.7% to 2.105m (Q3 2015: 1.991m)

* Motor in-force policies up 7.6% to 1.530m (Q3 2015: 1.422m)

* Home in-force policies up 1.1% to 0.575m (Q3 2015: 0.569m)

- Additional Services Revenues1 up 3.5% to £80.6m (YTD Q3 2015: * £77.9m)

* - The Group's financial position is strong and the capital base has been further strengthened as part of the Gocompare.com demerger

Chief executive Stuart Vann commented: "Our business continues its strong growth trajectory and overall premiums are up 16% and policies up 6% year-on-year, which is very pleasing. As a result of our underwriting expertise, focus on customer service, and efficient expense base, we are well placed to take advantage of the current motor market conditions to grow our market share over the coming period and deliver value to shareholders.

"Rates in motor continue to be favourable and we are making good progress on our strategic initiatives to grow our business. In particular our underwriting footprint expansion, which supports our growth ambitions, and enhanced customer contribution modelling in motor are delivering promising results.

HSBC Buy 199.80 240.00 243.00 Reiterates

Credit Suisse today initiates coverage of esure Group plc (LON:ESUR) with a outperform investment rating and price target of 240p.

What a flat liner, looking at the chart.

Yes - its going to break one way or the other soon!

Peel Hunt Hold 201.70 190.00 200.00 Reiterates

Interesting developments in the progress of self driving cars.
FT - "Motor insurance is likely to shift from coverage of the driver to product liability coverage, especially as the technology shifts towards partially and fully autonomous vehicles. This is supported in the UK by the government's expected plans to retain compulsory motor insurance for autonomous vehicles in the Modern Transport Bill, due to be published soon. Motorists will likely have coverage from their insurers in the event of an accident, even if the vehicle was operating autonomously, because the coverage will be extended to product liability. Where the vehicle is at fault, the insurer will then be able to seek compensation from the manufacturer.

Concerns were expressed over the risks of intermediate technologies, as drivers may not always be aware that they need to be ready to take over from the vehicle at any moment. Some manufacturers, concerned with the risks, have decided to skip the intermediate stages entirely. In jurisdictions where the law is not clear, insurers may find determining liability for accidents difficult.

There is still a lot of uncertainty over who will have access to connected car data. This is especially pertinent for insurers who will need at least a basic level of data in order to determine liability in the event of an accident.

For motor insurers globally, all this means that adaptation is crucial to ensure future competitiveness. In the short term we would expect increased technology in cars to reduce the frequency of claims for insurers, possibly leading to higher profits. However, 5-10 years out, we think insurers may need to find new pools of risk, or expand to become service providers for motorists."

Preliminary results

A strong year of growth in premiums, policies and profit

Highlights

· Gross written premiums up 19.0% to £655.0m (2015: £550.3m)

· In-force policies up 8.6% to 2.174 million (2015: 2.001 million)

· Underlying profit after tax(1) up 18.0% to £80.5m (2015: £68.2m)

· Combined operating ratio 1.0ppt higher at 98.8% (2015: 97.8%)

· Full year dividend of 13.5p (2015: 11.5p) reflects a payout ratio of 70% of underlying earnings per share, inclusive of a 20% special dividend

· Strong capital position with Group coverage(2) at 149% (2015: 123%)

· Demerger of Gocompare.com completed on 3 November 2016

Gap to be filled?

Yes, to be sure.

I'll get my coat :o)

Peel Hunt Hold 239.95 200.00 200.00 Reiterates

Shore Capital Sell 239.95 - - Reiterates

Ah, so nice to have uniformity between brokers!🤣

Kim - what is that emoji?