Ann: Genworth announces on-market share buy-back, page-5

$100 M buyback is not going to get them anywhere near a target PCA coverage of 1.33 - 1.44 X. Based on their PCA requirement at 30 June of $1,056 M and the 1.87 x coverage reported to 30 September they would need to buyback $454 M of shares to hit 1.44 X coverage (the high end of the board's target).

That's more than half of GMA's market cap as of this morning!

So while I agree that buybacks when the SP is so undervalued is the best way to hand back capital to shareholders it's just not practical to buy back half the SOI. Buybacks also tend to fall short of their target, are too slow to execute etc. etc.

So I think that the BOD are going to have to do something more to get closer to their target - capital return, special dividend.

They have around $1 per share to distribute (including today's announcement) if they want to hit their target, "more in line" are weasel words, is it a target or not?

They still have large loss reserves - to be sure
They pushed out the earning curve - to be sure
They are holding capital way in excess of their own PCA coverage target - to be sure

It's starting to sound like that joke about the Irishman that wore three condoms............