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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Further to our response to a BEIS consultation, the government has now published new draft regulations concerning corporate reporting, including measures that companies are taking to detect and prevent fraud.
The draft regulations are expected to be debated in parliament this autumn. If approved by Parliament, the Regulations will come into force on 1st January 2025.
The draft regulations implement the following four new reporting requirements for very large companies that were consulted on in the 2021 White Paper on ‘Restoring Trust in ...
SIGnet is excited to announce the launch of a new in-person, evening group, for members in the London area.
You are invited: to an initial online meeting to explain more about the group, meet other investors, and confirm the details of the in-person group meetings. This launch meeting will be held on Zoom at 7pm on 30th August and is expected to last approximately 90 minutes. It is open to all investors with an interest in our new group, but you will ...
This article reflects the opinions of its author, Cliff Weight, and not necessarily those of ShareSoc.
We need to kickstart a system of connections for shareholders in our digital age
Archie Norman’s opinion piece in the FT 14 July “The bond between British business and society has eroded -We need to kickstart a system of connections for shareholders in our digital age” (subscription required) has clarified his clarion call to modernise the Companies Act.
This year, M&S experimented with a digital-only AGM and Archie recognises ...
ShareSoc (UK Individual Shareholders Society), the not-for-profit membership organisation representing the rights of individual shareholders, is pleased to announce that all resolutions proposed to members at the AGM, held on 28th June, were duly passed.
The results are as follows:
For
Against
Abstain
Total
Resolution 1: To receive the Report and Accounts of the Board of Directors for the year ended 31st December 2022.
44
2
1
47
Resolution 2: To re-elect as a member of the Board Ms. Jema Janet Elspeth Mary Arnold (appointed 06/02/2023).
38
4
3
45
Resolution 3: To re-elect as a member ...
Abolish Stamp Duty Tax or reduce it to 0.05%
In a short, 4-page response, to the HMRC Consultation, we re-emphasised the points we made in our 2020 consultation response. Our key points were:
This consultation is fundamentally flawed. It does not discuss the rate of taxation on UK shares, which is currently 0.5% and is hugely uncompetitive with the US, which is the largest securities market in the world.
Our analysis is that:
The original rationale for stamp duty (cost of wax seal ...
Recent announcements relating to Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF) warrant close attention:
The FCA has announced a potential £235 million settlement with Link Financial Services (LFS)
The settlement, if approved by WEIF investors, will be used to pay redress
The scheme, if approved, will protect LFS from further claims
The FCA is effectively urging investors to approve the scheme and is stating that legal redress claims promise an unrealistic return since FSCS compensation would not cover investment losses. This statement is confusing, since redress claims ...
Joint response from UKSA and ShareSoc 22 May 2023
One of the key roles of ShareSoc is to represent the interests of individual investors and we do this by campaigning and lobbying for improvements. Part of what we do on behalf of our members is to respond to consultations such as FCA DP23-2. In a detailed 30-page response, UKSA and ShareSoc made the following key points:
1 - We are pleased that the FCA is consulting on the UK regime for asset management ...
Currently, investor campaigns and grass-roots shareholder action groups are obstructed by the barricades that prevent them from communicating with other shareholders. Shareholder contact details increasingly rarely appear on share registers. The fact that the vast majority of individuals’ investments are held via Nominees, means that they become anonymous. They are a company’s beneficial shareholders but they are uncontactable, other than by their broker/platform behind a wall of GDPR rules.
The Shareholder Rights Campaign
ShareSoc has campaigned tirelessly over many years for much more ...
This article reflects the opinions of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc.
I attended the BP shareholder meeting on 19 April, held at the BP Head Office 1 St James’s Square, along with about 60 - 70 other shareholders. The meeting was organised by UKSA and ShareSoc members were also invited to attend.
The case for investing in BP shares is clear. They plan to grow ROACE to 18% with careful and limited capex split 50/50 between transition (green) energy ...
Marks and Spencer and ShareSoc have written to Business Secretary The Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP urging the Government to change the Companies Act to modernise it to allow electronic (ie digital) communication with and between shareholders; and to allow digital GMs without the need for companies to change their articles.
ShareSoc, UKSA and the QCA are the first co-signatories of the OPEN LETTER to the Business Secretary. All members are encouraged to read and sign the petition.
Marks and Spencer has teamed up with the Mail ...
