Insurance outfit Hiscox is one of the most respected names in its sector and for good reason. For the first half of the year the outfit achieved a combined ratio of 82%. That marks a deterioration on the 74.7% seen in the comparable period of the year before but is nevertheless a good result. The company also improved the returns its makes on investing the money from premiums which it takes in, to 2%, while the dividend was raised by 7% to 7.5p, although it is too soon to say whether it will repeat the trick of repurchasing share capital to the tune of 11%, as it has over the past couple of years.

More importantly perhaps, the firm is concentrating on smaller-ticket business instead of going after lower margin higher-ticket work. Even so, the shares are currently changing hands at a 63% premium to net asset value, which looks a bit high for the sector. "The company is well run and profitable, but there is growing competition in the insurance market and the valuation on the shares is high", so 'hold' says The Times' Tempus.

Sometimes it's better to follow different paths in life. When? Well, you know when the moment comes. So it is too in the corporate world. Yesterday both Reckitt Benckiser and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) effectively set out plans to separate their pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare divisions. Indeed, given the former's reliance on R&D and the latter's need for marketing and cultivating relationships with retailers it may be best to let each side focus on what it does best.

Nonetheless, that is not always the case. That is because pharma products can sometimes be turned into consumer ones. Thus, Bayer recently bought Merck's consumer unit and for the moment at least GSK is merging its own consumer business with that of Novartis. Absent those operational crossovers however a separation is often best, writes the Financial Times' Lex column.

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