Corporate Governance

Corporate Governance News

This section on Corporate Governance provides investors with the latest topical news plus some informal comments and insights from ShareSoc’s directors and other contributors.

How Boards Should Operate

This article reflects the opinions of its author, Cliff Weight, and not necessarily those of ShareSoc.  ShareSoc member Barry Gamble’s letter to the FT  Black Box thinking and bad boards is a theme I return to again and again and which I first highlighted in a blog in March 2018 https://www.sharesoc.org/blog/corporate-governance/black-box-governance-thinking/ .  Woodford and Link are two other boards which failed woefully. Another case is the Post Office, about which the FT published the following letter from ShareSoc Member Barry Gamble (subscription required to ...

RBS/NatWest: Has the leopard changed its spots?

This article reflects the opinions of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Farage Fiasco forces CEO’s resignation; governance concerns at NatWest Dame Alison Rose stood down in July over the closure of Nigel Farage’s account by Coutts & Co, and more specifically over her indiscrete communications with the BBC on the matter. Alison Rose clearly made a huge blunder in chatting to Simon Jack, the BBC news editor, about a customer’s personal financial information. I’m sure she will kick herself until the ...

A Tale of Two Investment Trusts

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Salutary Lessons for Directors and Shareholders of Trusts Investing in Alternative Assets  Usually, the role of non-executive director at an investment trust is a bit of a sinecure. Most investment trusts invest in stocks and bonds. Their portfolios are easy to value and there is little scope for misdeeds. Most such trusts publish their NAVs daily. The principal role for NEDs of such trusts is to ...

Home REIT – A Personal Viewpoint

This article reflects the opinions of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Initial Period  Home REIT (HOME) appeared to offer rather an attractive proposition. It was intended to purchase residential properties and lease them at affordable rents to charities and public bodies (“the tenants”) providing accommodation for the homeless. The rent was supposed to be covered by housing benefits paid directly to the tenants, i.e. fully government backed. Rental income was expected to be sufficient to support a dividend of at ...

Investment Trust fees – should they be based on market cap or NAV?

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Should Investment Trusts (including VCTs)  base their fees on market cap and not Net Asset Value? In the case of of Chrysalis Investments (CHRY), the 58% discount to NAV means the 0.77% fees as a % of NAV are in excess of 1.5% of market cap, which in my opinion is egregious:   A story in Investment Week "Chrysalis managers stand by unlisted holdings" https://www.investmentweek.co.uk/4055056/ also highlighted the ...

Gore Street Energy Fund Dividend Waiver and Directors’ Jobs

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. At the forthcoming Annual General Meeting of Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (GSF) in addition to the usual resolutions shareholders are asked to approve a whitewash of the illegal past payments of dividends (resolution 15). This regularly happens when a company fails to file a statement of distributable reserves at Companies House showing it has sufficient reserves to cover the dividend. It seems to happen ...

Paul Myners Obituary and BHP Unification Meetings

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Lord Myners has died at the age of 73. He had a big hand in the rescue of the banks in the financial crisis of 2008 as a Treasury Minister in the Labour Government after becoming the socialists’ favourite capitalist. He was also responsible for the Myners Report into institutional investment which had some influence on corporate governance and institutional stewardship in the UK. I met ...

A Bumper Edition of Investors Chronicle

The opinions expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Over the Christmas period we were treated to a bumper edition of the Investors’ Chronicle. And I have to say that this magazine has improved of late under the editorship of Rosie Carr. Whether she has a bigger budget or is just picking better writers I do not know but she certainly deserved the job after working for the magazine for many years. I’ll pick out ...

Baronsmead VCT – More Corporate Governance Issues

The opinions expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I mentioned in a previous blog post that covered Northern Venture Trust that “VCTs are a perpetual problem in relation to excessive management fees, poor corporate governance, and general behaviour prejudicial to the interests of shareholders”. Now we have an AGM for Baronsmead VCT (BVT) in prospect on the 16th February. As a holder I will be expressing the following concerns to the Chairman: In the ...

Northern Venture Trust and Other VCTs

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Northern Venture Trust (NVT) recently published their Annual Report. It shows that the manager (now Mercia) collected a performance fee of £2.5 million which on my calculation raised the overall fees and expenses as a percentage of closing net asset value to 4.5%. This is way too high in my opinion even allowing for the work involved in managing a portfolio of small, unlisted investments. When ...