Jim Armitage: Everyone's on a different song sheet with GoCompare valuation

As Gio, the recently rehired opera singer, bellows: “Go compare”. But analysts’ opinions on the valuation of eSure’s online insurance price comparator vary so widely as to make shopping around for a meaningful estimate nigh on impossible.

Macquarie says the thing could be worth £620 million. House broker JPMorgan reckons £466 million would be more fitting.

Why such a huge range? Because, unlike motor insurance premiums, it’s hard to make comparisons on which to base your price.

While the likes of Macquarie can extrapolate huge valuations by comparing Moneysupermarket’s share price, GoCompare is nowhere near as slick, or big, an outfit, and must be far less valuable.

The valuation at which eSure bought out GoCompare last year, £192 million, is also a useless guide.

That was always going to be a lowball price because eSure already had a 50% stake.

To further muddy things, eSure’s deputy chief operating officer Jon Morrell, moved across after last year’s deal to run GoCompare, has pushed through a major restructuring since.

He’s brought in cost efficiencies to what was a business treading water and reinvigorated its marketing with Gio’s noisy encore.

This seems to be bearing fruit. GoCompare is also adding new products beyond insurance to its range.

For his troubles, Morrell is being replaced by the starry lastminute and Expedia executive Matthew Crummack.

He leaves eSure with no job to go to. Cheers Jon, shut the door behind you.

Despite Morrell’s efforts, and the high expectations for Crummack, sustaining growth in profitability in this massively competitive market isn’t easy.

Admiral’s outgoing chief executive Henry Engelhardt, asked recently about his company’s Confused.com website, said revenue was being “eaten up” by the marketing war.