Mony Group, Future selloff on AI worries overdone, says Berenberg

(Sharecast News) - Berenberg said on Wednesday that the selloff in shares of MoneySuperMarket parent Mony Group and GoCompare owner Future a day earlier was overdone. Shares in Mony and Future tumbled on Tuesday after US online insurance agent and comparison platform Insurify launched what it claimed is the insurance industry's first ChatGPT app.

Insurify said the app allows users to browse, research, and compare car insurance directly through the AI platform's new app library.

"While this is confirmation of the way the price comparison website (PCW) market will likely evolve, concerns about how agentic AI models would affect consumer journeys in insurance have been around for a while and are already partly reflected in valuations, in our view," Berenberg said in a research note.

"We continue to view the disintermediation risk as relatively low given regulatory burdens, with evidence that ChatGPT is looking at integrating with market leaders."

Berenberg pointed out that market structure is different in the US versus the UK.

"The US insurance market is largely served by brokers, and is conducted on a state-by-state basis due to regulation," it noted. "This is different to the UK market, whereby 90% of insurance is sourced through price comparison websites.

"This results in a highly competitive market in the UK, and thus we do not anticipate lower insurance premiums, which would otherwise be a headwind to the revenue growth of MONY Group's and Go.Compare's insurance business."

It said PCWs maintain real-time application programming interface (API) connections to about 250 providers, which serve results and quotes based on the specific user inputs.

"ChatGPT is unlikely to integrate with insurance providers directly in the UK, in our view, given regulatory issues/burdens in handling customer data and FCA customer duty requirements," Berenberg said. "This creates a moat for PCWs against direct disruption from agentic AI models. In fact, we have already noted evidence of app integration in ChatGPT with leaders in specific verticals - for example, real estate platform Zillow in the US. We would expect a similar dynamic to play out in the UK/Europe."

The bank said questions about future margins remain more pertinent.

Berenberg rates both stocks at 'buy'. It has a price target of 275p for Mony and 970p for Future.