ShareSoc Blog
The ShareSoc blog provides news and informal commentary from directors, members and other contributors. Entries reflect the personal views of the authors, which do not necessarily reflect ShareSoc’s formal position. Contributors may hold shares in the companies mentioned. Nothing in this blog should be viewed as financial advice. You may submit comments on blog posts, but ShareSoc reserves the right to remove or edit inappropriate or defamatory submissions.
There is more news given in the News page of our web site and more analysis of news is provided in our monthly newsletter for members – see the Newsletters page.
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As part of our campaign to improve the AIM market, ShareSoc Director Mark Bentley has today written to the Head of AIM inquiring what actions the AIM regulatory team is taking to investigate whether scams of the type alleged by US authorities have been conducted on the AIM market, which seems highly likely to us, and lies at the root of why we are seeking reform of AIM regulation.
See this blog post for details of the allegations. Today's letter can be seen ...
The Financial Times ran an interesting article on Friday (13/4/2018) headlined “FRC criticised over transparency". It reported that the Financial Reporting Council answered only 6 out of 52 Freedom of Information requests since 2013. Atul Shah, Professor of Accounting at the University of Suffolk, was reported as saying: “This shows that there is a real problem within the soul of the FRC. It is a public regulator and not a private members’ club, and it has clear duties of transparency, accountability ...
Conviviality (CVR) has now gone into administration, and the ordinary shares are probably worthless (they were suspended some days ago and are likely to remain so). The administrators have already sold the major parts of the business in “pre-pack” administration deals. That’s where arrangements are made to dispose of assets in advance of the appointment of administrators by the prospective administrators before they have in fact been appointed. Is that legal you may ask? Yes it is because of a past ...
I have complained before about the services from the registrar Link Asset Services that frustrate shareholders from receiving a paper Annual Report and Proxy Voting Form.
The latest example is on another company where Link sent a paper copy of the Annual Report out, and a Notice of the AGM, but no paper proxy voting form. They suggest in a covering letter that I can either vote on-line using their “share portal” or request a paper proxy form.
For those of us who ...
My thanks go to ShareSoc member Tony Johnson - for bringing to my attention, a recent lecture given to the Banking Standards Board by Sir Geoffrey Vos, Chancellor of the High Court of England and Wales. In the lecture, Sir Geoffrey considers the present state of integrity of our financial institutions and our judiciary.
For those with plenty of time, you can read the full script of his lecture here -
https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/chc-speech-banking-standards-board-lecture.pdf
For those with less time, I summarise below :
Sir Geoffrey is well-qualified ...
Melrose has won the voting battle to take control of GKN although the Government might yet step in to halt the takeover. On what grounds is not exactly clear. Never having held shares in either company, I thought it worth looking at the facts rather than the hyperbole surrounding this deal as there seemed to be some myths being propagated.
Is GKN a key business in the UK’s engineering and technology infrastructure based on a long history of innovation? Or is it ...
A number of ShareSoc members have asked the ShareSoc Board for their recommendations for the GKN offer from Melrose. ShareSoc is not FCA registered and cannot give advice - and neither can I.
Why have fund managers, who should be talking a long-term view, sold 25% of GKN to short-term opportunists? Why are 11% of Melrose shares shorted? Why has the Melrose share price not dropped hugely in the face of this short selling?
The final offer is for 81p plus 1.69 Melrose ...
Readers who take any notice of financial affairs will be aware of the furore over the threat by Aviva to redeem their preference shares by a “share cancellation” process – they claimed that is a different legal process, even though the shares were described as “irredeemable”. The shares concerned dropped in price to a significant extent because their high coupon interest rate meant they were trading at a premium when cancellation would have meant redemption at the original par value. Aviva ...
Many investors do not research which trading platforms (a.k.a. on-line stockbrokers) are the cheapest before they sign up with them. Neither do all platforms offer the same facilities – for example all the different types of ISAs and allow investment in both funds and investment companies or direct shares. Retail investors tend to depend on which name they remember from advertising, from friends’ recommendations and other sources. But now the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) has provided a useful comparison tool.
The ...
Press Release 103 - Joint Press Release from UKSA and ShareSoc
Conviviality
Asset managers need to think again why they missed the warning signs.
Shares in the wholesaler and distributor are now suspended as it considers the anticipated impact on its funding position of £30m due to HMRC. This business has looked questionable since an abrupt change of strategy several years ago. The facts were there for all to see.
Manifest spotted problems.
Despite this, shareholders approved the latest annual accounts - ...
