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http://www.therockinsurance.com By SL Hak The Rock Insurance Co. has gone silent recently a far cry from the summer of 2007, when they commenced offering insurance policies to SL Residents. These insurance policies were offered for deposits held at selected SL Banks. This was a brave and innovative move considering the murky world of SL Banking and especially as they were offering customers a full refund. There is no question they needed to keep a close eye on potential abuse. The Rock Insurance attempted to mitigate their risk by closely monitoring the banks and seemed to perform this task with quiet professionalism. They offered competitive rates, which the wise could offset against the favorable interest payments received from the banks. If the investor trusted The Rock, insurance should have been a given.
The Rock were called on a number of times and with each banking collapse they held firm and paid out, this was conducted without fuss and their reputation slowly but steadily grew. However then came along the banking bombshell, overnight 90% of it's business evaporated. This necessitated an immediate halt in trading and that's where it stalls today. So where does The Rock go next, do they or any other insurance company have a future in SL? To succeed there is no doubt that the model will need to change but will it still be viable? CEO Eliale Morigi believes there is an opportunity in insuring listed companies, but acknowledges that participation of the stock exchange is required in order for this to succeed. He believes that if a listed company is forced to insure its shareholders then this would present a positive marketing tool for that exchange and all parties would benefit as this is likely to attract new investors This is an attractive proposition, shareholders having their shareholding insured is a tempting prospect, but can it succeed? Could it be financially viable and are there any other solutions? There are many doubters out there, one sure sign being that the The Rock never had any serious competition. This is a sure sign of the risk involved, so credit must be given to Eliale for his competency in making it succeed if only for a short while. However companies usually taking such risk would expect high returns for this risk, this reward has not yet materialized within SL insurance and The Rock will have an uphill task in making their case as there are no interest rate payments available to offset premiums. During the trading halt The Rock has reduced expenditure maintaining only their office at Port Druart, the company is liquid with no outstanding debts and perfectly placed to press on. So where does it go next and are there are opportunities for insurance companies? Eliale has not yet resolved these questions and is is carefully considering his next move, he commented that an announcement was expected soon. Eliale Morigi through his privately owned company The Rockerduck Private Fund (owner of The Rock) has not been sitting idle and has diversified by purchasing 1.6 million shares (2%) of SL Capex (SLCX) and 8% of Delicious Demar Enterprises (formerly DDE on WSE). Eliale believes that both companies offer great growth potential and it will be interesting to see if he believes that The Rock offers similar potential or will SL insurance sink with The Rock. I'd like to thank Eliale Morigi for his contribution to this article. If you have news about The Rock or other SL Finance gossip I can be contacted on SL-Hak@hotmail.com
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