Before you read any further this string has been started for people who are not easily offended by forthright and sometimes harsh analysis of AMP. If you are a long term holder of AMP stock it might be best for you not to read this as some comments may be offensive.
Moving forward I may share some vignettes of my interviews with customers, staff and planners from AMP and any other tid bits of info that I come across. I will only post items that have some supporting data (i.e. not just hearsay).
NB: STOP NOW if you are likely to be offended by honest and forthright analysis and discussion.
The good. AMP have a great platform for growth but it has been a mish mash of good ideas being poorly executed for a long time. The AMP bank is a great little business that makes good money and could do even better if it were expanded. AMP also have one of the largest superannuation books in the land and although this hasn't boded too well for them recently this too could be an excellent platform for growth moving forward. AMP commenced an advice model called AMP Advice which incorporated a customer experience that seemed to me to be taking the AMP Advice model to new levels.
The bad. There is too much to say so I will only mention a few of the majors. The business does not seem to have been managed with any synergy for a long time. New players are ripping a band saw through the customer base and the AMP brand has been hugely damaged recently. WE have class actions pending and the potential for criminal charges.
The ugly. Where to moving forward? We haven't heard a cracker from AMP about strategy and then they announced the sale of the life business out of the blue. This drove the share price to it's current low point. The Royal commission report is still pending but from what we have seen so far this will not be pretty for AMP. It looks to me like it could be a bust up and sell of but at what value? If they sold the life business for as low as 0.62 times embedded earnings (0.82 if you believe AMP's version) then what value does this place on the rest of this company?
I honestly do not believe that AMP will disappear completely. However, in what capacity will it remain? For all of the talk of a 169 year old company the actual part that is 169 years old is being sold. I personally cannot see this business returning to better PE multiples without a detailed strategy and a solid year or two of steady earnings.
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