Nominee Accounts

A shocking failure to communicate?

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc An investment trust that I invest in, JP Morgan Global Growth and Income (JGGI) held an important general meeting today. The purpose of the meeting was to approve its takeover of another investment trust, The Scottish Investment Trust (SCIN). I was shocked to read the RNS announcing the results of the general meeting issued this evening. Not shocked or surprised that the resolutions were overwhelmingly passed but ...
Post Date: September 5, 2022 Read more

Austin Review of Capital Raising and Dematerialisation

This article represents the views of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. It’s the mid-summer doldrums in the stock market and with investors having more time on their hands, what better time to issue a 265 page document entitled “UK Secondary Capital Raising Review” (see link below). This document covers a number of very important issues to investors after a review by Mark Austin as Chair of a committee that has looked at the way the UK stock market operates ...
Post Date: August 4, 2022 Read more

Scrapping Share Certificates and Clive Sinclair Obituary

This article represents the views of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc The Government is to push ahead with the scrapping of paper share certificates. An announcement yesterday by Lord Frost included this in a bonfire of regulations which also included plans to scrap driving licences (i.e. making them digital only). The dematerialisation of shares was long ago committed to by an EU directive with no new paper certificates to be issued by 2023 and all existing ones replaced by ...
Post Date: September 17, 2021 Read more

ShareSoc Patron Lord Lee Parliamentary Question about Bacanora take-over

The background is that ShareSoc was approached by the Bacanora Lithium Shareholder Action Group which is being run by Dee Patel who asked for ShareSoc’s assistance. We have helped them in explaining some key issues in how to run a campaign, how to obtain the shareholder register, problems with voting nominee shares, etc. We also thought whether a takeover would be in the UK public interest issue. We drew this to the attention of ShareSoc Patron Lord Lee, who has now tabled ...
Post Date: June 11, 2021 Read more

Buying, Selling and Voting US shares

by Cliff Weight, Director ShareSoc. The Gamestop upcoming AGM votes have highlighted the differences in the platforms. Some still do not allow you to buy US shares. Notably Interactive and eToro will allow voting of Gamestop shares. I was sent the information below by a journalist, which looks right, but I cannot guarantee it is so. These things often change. I understand that Hargreaves are looking at making voting easier and considering using Broadridge. That would definitely be a great step in the right direction. Platform Access to US ...
Post Date: June 2, 2021 Read more

Daily Mail, 2 May 2021, Aviva Investor Revolt

The Daily Mail quoted ShareSoc Director Cliff Weight in its 2 May Aviva article https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-9535371/Aviva-faces-investor-revolt-preference-shares-scandal.html   Aviva faces an investor revolt this week after angering shareholders by deciding not to claw back fees from directors who oversaw a preference shares scandal. The insurer was rocked in 2018 when it said it was considering buying back shares marketed as 'irredeemable' for less than they were trading at. It reneged on the announcement days later, by which time the shares had tumbled. It was forced to compensate investors. ...
Post Date: May 2, 2021 Read more

Mail, 14 March 2021, SUPERMAN and #sharesocuk Support Shareholder Rights.

It is good news that The Mail on Sunday MailOnline is supporting shareholders and shareholders rights. I get quoted.... Cliff Weight, director of investor campaign group ShareSoc, says wealth platforms make it so difficult for customers to engage that they are 'disenfranchising individual shareholders'. He says: 'Most platforms don't even pass on information and if you want to vote the method offered is practically prehistoric. As a result they're throwing away millions of shareholder votes.' Weight believes platform Interactive Investor is better than most. Eight per cent ...
Post Date: March 14, 2021 Read more

Law Commission Review of Intermediated Securities

The Law Commission has published a “scoping paper” on Intermediated Securities (See Reference 1 below). This might sound a pretty dry technical subject but the subtitle of the report asks the important question – it covers “Who Owns Your Shares?” I have written about the problem of the growth in the use of nominee accounts as on-line platforms have replaced share certificates many times in the past. ShareSoc has a web page with voluminous information on this subject including reports written by ...
Post Date: November 16, 2020 Read more

Chrysalis – Vote NO at 26 November General Meeting

Shareholders are excluded from this GM and there is no pre-meeting webinar to discuss these highly contentious proposals to wind up the VCT and distribute any monies raised (less administration fees, including payments to the failing fund manager and some directors). Several members of the ShareSoc VCT Investor Group (including Tim Grattan, Mark Lauber, Roger Lawson and myself) met on 10 Nov to discuss Chrysalis' plans. Our conclusion was that shareholders should vote against these proposals for the following reasons: Chrysalis is ...
Post Date: November 11, 2020 Read more

Unsatisfactory Avast AGM, and Designated Accounts

I “attended” the Avast (AVST) Annual General Meeting today. This was of course held on-line using Zoom with only one director in physical attendance (Warren Finegold) who chaired the meeting. Zoom seems to be becoming the de facto standard for on-line meetings. The Chairman of the company, John Schwarz, gave a brief presentation backed up by some slides. To summarise, it was another strong year of growth and profitability. A new CEO is now in place. EBITDA was up 8% with strong ...
Post Date: May 21, 2020 Read more