Calm before the earnings storm

On Friday July 13th  another major milestone in Ageas’ history was reached when, after close of markets, the Amsterdam court of Appeal declared the EUR 1.3bn Fortis settlement between Ageas and the claimant’ organisations binding. Overall, analysts and investors consider the binding settlement as a major step forward for Ageas in freeing itself from almost all lawsuits linked to the Fortis events of 2007-2008. Clearly through this decision an important chapter of the Fortis legacy has been brought to a close and the Ageas share can be added to list of possible investments by a broader investor base. The court's decision to declare the settlement binding was also the expectation of the investor community and it was already included in the investment case of most investors which perhaps explains the somewhat ‘muted’ share price reaction. Last Monday, the share opened at EUR 43.00 up +0.12% and eventually closed at EUR 42.94, flat compared to last Friday’s close.

Separately Macro headlines continued to attract attention last trading week with the European Union & Japan signing the world largest bilateral trade pact covering about a third of global domestic product and declaring themselves the “flag bearers of free trade". The deal comes at a time when trade war tensions between the US & China are running at a high with Donald Trump putting his “America First” rhetoric to the forefront. In any case, Japan hopes this trade pact will ‘act as a trigger’ to bring the US back to the multilateral frame work.

Overall last trading week was a relatively calm one with low stock trading volumes. However, this was probably the calm before the ‘earnings’ storm as this week Q2 18 results reporting will kick in so this week should prove again a busy week for investors.

Over the last trading week, the Ageas share remained flat at EUR 42.95 with the SXIP 600 Insurance Index slightly up (+0.3%).