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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Shane M who wrote (44301)	9/10/2011 9:39:54 PM
From: vireya	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78596

Recently heard a pre4sentation from Geico Bet you didnt know that a vast majority of Geico business is in Japan I think I remember something like 75%

To: Shane M who wrote (44301)	9/11/2011 11:39:41 PM
From: Jurgis Bekepuris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78596

Thanks for your thoughts. I wanted to probe just one thing a bit more. If "P&C is such a tough business" as you say, how come tons of companies show annualized 10-13% book value (and book value per share) growth for 10 years+? This is a good result, isn't it? So what is a good explanation for these results? Is it just "very good" 10 years, i.e. luck/helpful winds, etc? Something else? Or am I looking too much outside of what you consider P&C business when I make this observation? But even then, why did the expanded universe of P&C + specialty (actually CB is in that expanded universe) + re, would do so well? Any thoughts or comments welcome.

To: Shane M who wrote (44301)	9/13/2011 2:02:34 AM
From: Spekulatius	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78596

re PGR - >>it could be Progressive coming out from there, but their business model seems more fragile imho.<< I wonder why you consider PGR business model as fragile - it's the same as Geico's - directly sold cheap car insurance. The problem with both Geico and PGR insurance business is that they don't offer a package,of car/property/umbrella insurance that other insurance companies do. With the discounts, the bundle is often cheaper than obtaining the coverage with direct insurers and much less hassle, imo. I wonder why WEB has not bought a property insurance company yet, or let Geico offer property insurance. They do broker property insurance but that is not a coherent product for the customer. What makes the property insurance tough is the shrinking pie due to lower RE prices and many houses in foreclosure which may not be insured for a while.