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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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 ...
SIGnet, a not-for-profit organisation, is excited to announce the launch of a new group, for members in the Edinburgh area.
SIGnet is offering this new group for members in and around Edinburgh.
You are invited: to an online meeting to explain more about the group, meet other investors, and arrange our first group meetings. This launch meeting is scheduled at 7pm on 26th April and is expected to last approximately 90 minutes. It is open to all investors with an interest in our ...
ShareSoc Response
A key element of ShareSoc’s activities is lobbying Government/regulators and campaigning for change, to improve the lot of individual investors. One way we do this is by responding to Government consultations.
We recently responded to the Treasury consultation on PRIIPS and UK Retail Disclosure which closed on 3rd March 2023.
We made the following key points:
We are pleased that the Government is doing this consultation. We agree with the logic set out in the Minister’s foreword and in particular with the statement ...
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 ...
The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc.
Another fudge. No-one is going to jail for this disaster. Examples need to be set to deter, to stop this happening again.
I am appalled at the lack of transparency on the size of the settlement. The article mentions the contingent liabilities already disclosed in the KPMG accounts. We will eventually find out the size of the settlement when KPMG publishes its accounts for 2023, but ...
