Stock of the Day - Insurance Australia Group (SELL)
During the recent Annual General Meeting, Insurance Australia Group (IAG) has illustrated snippets of its remarkable and healthy financial performance for FY14. The Company has three divisions, the Enterprise Operations business providing the platforms, processes and services; Personal Insurance and Commercial Insurance businesses for delivering customer experience.
IAG has been focusing on home markets of Australia and New Zealand, and its efforts to establish a longer term growth platform in Asia have been commendable. Further, the acquisition of the former Wesfarmers business, and the execution of the new operating model in Australia are the key highlights adding to the strong performance.
FY14 Financial Summary (Source – Company Reports)
The Gross Written Premium (GWP) rose by 3% reflecting the low inflation environment. The net profit after tax increased by about 60% owing to the sale of the UK business which was completed last year.
Gross Written Premium Growth (Source – Company Reports)
IAG’s Australia Direct business has been performing well. The higher reported margin of 22.5% indicated higher reserve releases and lower natural peril costs. Other aspects included the strong customer experience and the new advertising campaign that was launched in September. The NRMA campaign has resulted in bettering the customer base.
The Australian intermediated business, CGU, witnessed healthy results with GWP growth of 2.8%. CGU focused on its customers with the launch of the new CGU brand campaign.
Dividend History (Source – Company Reports)
The New Zealand business also continued to perform strongly with local currency GWP growth of nearly 4% coupled with promising foreign exchange movements which led to reported growth of 17%. The integration of AMI also got completed. In fact, New Zealand’s reported margin of 11.5% illustrated an improvement on the prior year. This was witnessed irrespective of the net natural peril claim costs which were above allowances. The recovery of the Canterbury region has also been of importance.
Under the Asia segment, businesses in Thailand and Malaysia witnessed, more or less, a fine performance. The Company witnessed Malaysian business benefitting from a full year’s contribution from the acquisition of Kurnia. However, GWP in Thailand reduced a little in view of the closure of the prior year’s government incentive scheme for car buyers. Strong growth was achieved in India, China and Vietnam. IAG is also emphasizing on having market entry opportunities in Indonesia.
IAG Daily Chart (Source - Thomson Reuters)
Some recent updates include IAG receiving required regulatory approvals from the Commonwealth Acting Assistant Treasurer for its acquisition of the Wesfarmers insurance underwriting business; and approval from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand for the purchase of Lumley General Insurance Limited, the New Zealand portion of the Wesfarmers insurance underwriting business.
The Company reported that it witnessed strong performance during the opening months of FY15. Further, IAG expects to have strong operating performance as per the full year guidance. The GWP growth is expected to be in the range of 17 to 20% in view of addition of the former Wesfarmers business. The Company also expects to deliver a reported insurance margin in the range of 13.5 to 15.5%. In view of the above, we acknowledge the robust performance by IAG. Nonetheless, we opine that it be some more time when we start seeing leaps and bounds of profits from IAG. For instance, the Company expects to realize combined overall pre-tax synergies and benefits of $230 million per annum over a two-year period. It expects to hit the run rate by FY16.
Divisions (Source – Company Reports)
Accordingly, we put aSELLrecommendation for this stock at the current price of $6.36. Note - The following report was covered on 19/11/2014 in the Kalkine Daily.
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