This blog gives you the latest topical news plus some informal comments on them from ShareSoc’s directors and other contributors. These are the personal comments of the authors and not necessarily the considered views of ShareSoc. The writers may hold shares in the companies mentioned. You can add your own comments on the blog posts, but note that ShareSoc reserves the right to remove or edit comments where they are inappropriate or defamatory.

Brexit and the Impact on Your Investments

There has been a lot of public debate on the issue of whether Britain should remain in the EU, or depart. And whether David Cameron has negotiated a good enough deal to keep us in. I have written an editorial on this subject for the latest ShareSoc Newsletter. It’s rather too long for this blog but if anyone would like a free copy of the newsletter (as a pdf document) please request it on our Contact page here: www.sharesoc.org/contact-us/

One of the issues mentioned therein is the question of whether there would be any impact on the stock market investments of members. Most big companies are not expressing an opinion so far, although a spokesman for Lloyds of London (the insurance market) was reported in the FT this morning as saying it was in their interest to stay in. He rejected a claim of a “regulatory nirvana” if we exited and spoke warmly about the benefits of “EU passporting” arrangements that enable business across the EU.

One problem for companies is that they cannot form a view until they know what arrangements in respect of trade there might be if Britain did exit. As I said in the Editorial “Preferably if there is support for exiting there should be a negotiation on the exit terms, and a vote as to whether they are acceptable or not. In other words, the negotiation needs to be turned on its head”. Meanwhile the Telegraph noted that with the Annual Report season coming up, companies will be required to state the impact of exiting as one of the threats in their Reports. It will be interesting to see what they have to say on this point – and it could prompt some interesting questions at this year’s AGMs.

If you would like to give ShareSoc your opinion on this subject please go here to take a simple survey http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07ec8c3vk9ikcebkht/start . We will publish the results in due course.

Roger Lawson

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