Poor old Royal and SunAlliance (R&SA). Even when it makes a bold decision to shore up its liabilities, the stock market pulls the carpet away.
Its shareprice dropped on this week's announcement that it had disposed of its UK lenders' mortgage insurance business by selling it to PMI Europe.
R&SA doesn't get any direct cash from the deal but benefits from a better-than-expected loss performance on the transferred portfolio.
At 87p on Tuesday, the shares were dangerously low for the £960m rights issue price of 70p.
One boost this week, was that the insurer's senior debt facility was reinforced with £400m from 12 banks.
It may give investors comfort when they have to decide next week whether to back Haste and his team on the rights issue.
Another loser of the week was Trenwick. It lost 11.54% off its shareprice on Tuesday as Insurance Times went to press.
But the week's winners were GoshawK and Aspen Re. Against S&P's decision to lower its Lloyd's Syndicate Assessment (LSA) on Syndicate 102 to 'LSA 1pi' from 'LSA 2pi', GoshawK's shareprice rose over 10% during the week.
And Aspen Re, it seems, has finally sent out its proposal documents to various banks on a possible IPO. Analysts are predicting a "Christmas cracker" on the market.
