General News

Brexit Hangover, You’re Not Laughing Now

The markets falling, England lost to Iceland in a football match, and there is gloom and despondency everywhere. Much of the country seems to be in a post-party hangover. It therefore seems a good time to review the situation and try to give some explanations for what has been happening. Firstly, you have probably guessed, as did my local M.P. without me telling him, that I voted for Brexit. Je ne regrette rien, as one of our partners that we intend to ...

Bargains You Could Not Pick Up

As I predicted might happen in an earlier blog this morning, there was a panic when the market opened as the pound was already down substantially. But if you tried to pick up some bargains, it was damn difficult. Retail service providers who provide electronic quotes to brokers seemed to stop providing them, and just logging into some retail platforms proved very difficult. Even if you managed to log in, the service was so slow that it was impossible to do ...

Brexit Result Impact and Tesco AGM

The result is in, and the people have spoken. We will now leave the EU, unless of course there is some more re-negotiation or other fudge which would probably require some U-turns by politicians. They are of course adept at finessing such manoeuvres so don't be surprised if the outcome is not quite as simple as it might first appear. The pound has already fallen substantially (I am writing this just before the stock market opened). Is that a disaster? Not quite ...

Where Bonds are Concerned, Trust No-One

The news that the holders of Lloyds bonds (ECNs) have lost their legal battle in the Supreme Court reinforces the message that when it comes to investing in bonds, you should trust nobody - not the issuer of the bonds, your friendly stockbrokers and wealth managers who advise you, or the FCA to protect your interests. The bondholders won their case initially in the lower courts, that Lloyds should not be able to force redemption of these bonds at par. But after ...

Berkeley Results, Pay, Brexit and AIM

We are now definitely in the usual summer doldrums in the market, compounded by the uncertainty over Brexit. It is obvious that private investors have been taking their money...

Final Call for London Seminar and Other ShareSoc Events

Company Seminar in London on the 22nd June Next Wednesday we have another of our seminars in the City of London at the offices of Finncap commencing at 4.30 pm. The companies presenting are: - Defenx (DFX) - Security software solutions which is certainly a hot area for investment at present. - AEW UK REIT (AEWU) - An interesting closed end commercial property fund. - Private & Commercial Finance (PCF) - consumer and business finance. Roger Lawson will also be talking about the ShareSoc campaign ...

RBS and Pre-Packs

The FT carried a story on Saturday (11/6/2016) which was a blast from the past. It reported that Neil Mitchell, a former CEO of Torex Retail, had filed a claim in the high court against Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Cerberus and KPMG in relation to the sale of the company at the time it went into Administration. This case goes back to 2007 when Torex Retail got into financial difficulties after some fraudulent accounting came to light (which resulted in subsequent ...

FT One-Sided on Brexit?

Do you read the Financial Times? If so have you found the repeated articles on Brexit (including many editorials) somewhat one-sided? Well yesterday the Financial Times actually published a letter from Campbell Gordon complaining about it, and it's not often that editors publish letters critical of what they are issuing. But what do we get today? Yet another editorial on the same topic and with the same slant - in this case explaining why scientists are unhappy with Brexit and should not ...

Financial Repression Destroys Savings

The following press release has been issued by Better Finance to its members (of which ShareSoc is one). Readers may wish to take up this matter with their Member of Parliament as the UK has certainly been following the same economic strategy as the rest of Europe as regards to interest rates and financial repression so was to relieve the Government of some of its debt. PRESS RELEASE - FINANCIAL REPRESSION DESTROYS SAVINGS: EUROPEAN SAVERS BAILED IN BY ECB 22 April 2016 - ...

What’s the Beef About the Cameron’s Tax Planning, and Tata?

The attacks on David Cameron over his family's tax planning seem wildly excessive. His father set up an offshore investment fund to invest in dollar based shares without incurring the risk of double taxation. David did hold some of the units but subsequently sold them. His mother gave him £200,000 after his father died, with the probability (not certain) of that being outside inheritance tax if she lived for another 7 years. That is not exceptional tax planning, it's just common ...