Shares in Bristol specialist insurance broker Brightside Group fell earlier this week following a statement in which it admitted its earnings would be around a fifth lower this year.
The group said it had been hit by further capacity restrictions in the final quarter of its financial year. As a result policies tran
sacted on line business had fallen year on year.
Shares plunged by nearly 11% on Monday, closing down 2.12p at 17.25p. The slide continued on Tuesday, losing a further 4.35% in early trading taking them down to16.5p. They have since recovered slightly and this afternoon were trading at 17.88p
Brightside said it its trading statement yesterday that the main challenge to profitability was confined to a combination of specific circumstances restricting the available capacity to support the on line businesses. However, it reported substantial increases in capacity available to its online offerings for 2014, from a range of sources including mainstream carriers and specialist underwriters.
Continued negotiations are in progress to secure a number of further increases in the coming year, the broker added.
The firm,, based at the former M4 services at Aust, is among the UK's top 20 insurance brokers. It operates its own brands such as eCar and also operates 'white label' insurance services for retailers such as Asda.
