The Insider: City deals uncovered

Boss backs RSA recovery

RSA Insurance must be in contention for 'stock of the month'. The insurer is up over 12% since early August and has outperformed the FTSE All-Share index by 7%. Prior to that, things had looked shaky following three profits warnings – blame poor weather and accounting problems at the Irish business. But, as we pointed out at the interim results last month, a turnaround is underway.

Chief executive Stephen Hester certainly believes there's much further to go. The former boss at Royal Bank of Scotland has just spent over £100,000 on 21,500 shares at 466p.

And Hester must take some of the credit for recent improvements. Just weeks after being parachuted in to revive the business, he'd announced a £773 million rights issue, which launched at the end of March.

"Following a comprehensive review of the options available to RSA, the board believes that the rights issue will enable the group to restore its capital position and keep ahead of anticipated industry capital trends, and that this will allow the business to carry out its action and improvement plans without undue risk of suboptimal decisions forced by capital shortage or instability," he explained.

The Action Plan implemented by Hester and his team is "going well", too.

"Since announcing it five months ago, we have made strong progress improving strategic focus and capital health. Good work is also underway on cost, portfolio actions and the management line-up to drive future performance," he said last month.

As Barclays points out, RSA could exceed its 12-15% return on tangible equity target by this time next year. "It will have restored its capital to the upper end of its target and will have the prospect of paying a special dividend in 2016, taking its total dividend yield to 9%," says the broker.

Dart Group gaining altitude

Airline and holiday operator Dart Group looked unstoppable earlier this year. During an 18-month rally, the share price quadrupled to almost 300p, reflecting soaring demand largely for its all-inclusive summer breaks.

But in June, the Leeds-based company warned that full-year profits would miss forecasts, most likely because of "sporting and social events, such as the World Cup, public holidays and weather". It didn't really know. A legal ruling that might mean airlines pay compensation to delayed passengers probably didn't help.

However, at the AGM on 4 September, chairman and CEO Philip Meeson said things had got better.

"I am now pleased to say, however, that more recently we have seen some uplift in the market which has been encouraging, although it is still too early to judge whether this will have a sustainable effect on ticket yields. In terms of winter 14/15 Leisure Travel bookings, early indications are satisfactory."

Bosses remain "optimistic" about hitting profit targets for the year to March 2015. We'll find out more at an update mid-October.

In fact, non-executive director Mark Laurence is so confident he's splashed out £55,000 on 25,000 shares at just under 220p a pop. And why not, if demand picks up, most holidaymakers who book with Dart's Jet2holidays operation use its Jet2.com airline to fly there. The benefits are obvious.

This article is for information and discussion purposes only and does not form a recommendation to invest or otherwise. The value of an investment may fall. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.