No Christmas Bonus from Lancashire Holdings

[staffordian]

I know it's not a conventional HYP pick, but I think some besides me have it in their portfolio.

They announced their Q3 results today, which were a bit bleak. Not suprising given the hurricanes which recently afflicted the Caribbean and US.

Partly as a result of this, and partly because premiums are rising, and they can make better use of the cash by retaining it in the business, they are not paying their usual meaty special dividend this December.

The regular (though far smaller) dividends are unaffected.

https://www.investegate.co.uk/lancashir ... td%20Alert

[kempiejon]

Yes I had gotten used to those regular specials, I wonder if this is a short hiatus? The basic interim and final will not keep me in sausages.

[DiamondEcho]

Quite a roller-coaster of a day eh! But considering it was at 672p on the close a week last Friday, vs 747p this pm, I'm not complaining.
If they can use the un-paid/retained Special, to write some fat cover, as they suggest, then once again I'm going to put my faith in them to nimbly time the cycle.

[88V8]

Once again underlining that Specials are just that.
Antofagasta was another reliable generator of Specials until it wasn't.

I hold LRE and am happy to do so. But it is a cyclical business.

V8

[DiamondEcho]

Once again underlining that Specials are just that. Antofagasta was another reliable generator of Specials until it wasn't. I hold LRE and am happy to do so. But it is a cyclical business. V8

For sure! This was something of a lesson I had when I picked up a few holdings that paid/pay Specials: Do not 'mentally bank' what you imagine the future cash-flow from any Specials might be. On a company like LRE, one year's potential gross divs is to all intents and purposes completely uncorrelated with previous years IME. But if you hold it over many years, it all balances out and with such a longer term view it has been a very good payer.

I was holding it when the Special was previously suspended. I bought it in Jan-2008 had a good year, only for 2009 to be dreadful; the LRE site lists the only div that year as 'On 7 October 2009 an interim dividend of $0.05 (£0.0308) per common share was paid.' http://www.lancashiregroup.com/en/inves ... story.html

My impression, without beck-testing it, is that receiving no Special stings short-term, but they put the funds to good use and you see that come through on the capital/SP side of things. Hence my earlier comment about 'having faith'.

[staffordian]

Once again underlining that Specials are just that.
Antofagasta was another reliable generator of Specials until it wasn't.

I hold LRE and am happy to do so. But it is a cyclical business.

V8

Quite agree. Definitely not a core or even typical HYP holding for the above reason, but over time, a good little niche addition IMHO.

[BBLSP1]

I hold some LRE but do not count it as part of my HYP. I also do not count any previous specials towards future income projections, I only use the basic dividends to do this, any special being just that, a bonus should it come along.

I took the opportunity to buy some more at GBP 6.39 during the recent storms.

As others have said, it's a nice little niche share.

[monabri]

TMF "Top Stocks For November."

http://www.fool.co.uk/investing/2017/11 ... ovember-2/