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ShareSoc Blog
This blog gives you the latest topical news plus some informal comments on them from ShareSoc’s directors and other contributors. These are the personal comments of the authors and not necessarily the considered views of ShareSoc. The writers may hold shares in the companies mentioned. You can add your own comments on the blog posts, but note that ShareSoc reserves the right to remove or edit comments where they are inappropriate or defamatory.
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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Paying Illegal Dividends, Burford Capital, Woodford Patient Capital Trust and Zero Carbon Objective
A group of investors including Sarasin, Legal & General, Hermes and the UK Shareholders Association (UKSA) has written to Sir Donald Brydon who is undertaking a review of the audit market. They have yet again raised the question of whether the International Financial Accounting Standards (IFRS) are consistent with UK company law. In particular they question whether profits are sometimes being recognised, thus allowing the payment of illegal dividends. The particular issue is whether profits can arise on certain transactions under ...
Broker Charges, Proven VCT Performance Fee and LoopUp Seminar
The Share Centre are the latest stockbroker to increase their fees. The monthly fee for an ISA account is going up by 4.2% to £5.00 per month with increases on ordinary share accounts and SIPPs also. This is the latest of a number of fee increases among stockbrokers and retail investor platforms. The Share Centre blame the required investment in technology development and “an increasing burden of financial regulation”. The latter is undoubtedly the result of such regulations as MIFID II ...
Woodford Equity Income Fund Suspension – Analysis and Solutions
The business media is awash with analysis and comment on the closure of the Woodford Equity Income Fund to redemptions – meaning investors cannot take their money out, much to their dismay. I write as an innocent bystander as I have never held any of the Woodford managed funds.
But I have not been totally unaffected by the problem of investors taking their money out, which has led to the suspension, because it has resulted in Woodford needing to sell some of ...
UKSA-ShareSoc joint response to Brydon Review of Audit
UKSA-ShareSoc submitted a joint response to the Brydon REVIEW INTO THE QUALITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF AUDIT
We said a fresh approach was needed.
Many of the questions in the Review overtly or implicitly prompt debate about how the external audit can be made more robust and more relevant in future. Underlying this is a requirement to find ways of making auditors more accountable to those they are meant to be serving – namely the shareholders. Our view is that this cannot be achieved ...
Rights Issues/Open Offers. Should I take up M&S and Egdon?
I am quite keen on the potential of fracking in the UK and own some shares in Egdon. The USA has seen its economy transformed, as it moved very quickly to adopt this new technology and once again has become self sufficient in oil. Sadly (for me), the UK government has been slow to see the economic benefits of fracking and my investment in Egdon has languished. The company has just launched a £2m open offer to finance its next stages of ...
GoGompare AGM and a Generous Remuneration Scheme
Yesterday (23rd May) I attended the Annual General Meeting of GoCompare.com Group (GOCO) which was actually renamed GoCo Group at the meeting. This was held in the City of London at 3.00 pm but even so there were still very few ordinary shareholders present – less than ten I would guess.
The company’s main business is a price comparison web service, particularly focused on car insurance, but also covering utilities and other products. It is of course fronted by Italian opera singer ...
Accesso Technology AGM Report
I attended the Annual General Meeting of Accesso Technology (ACSO) this morning (21st May) at their offices west of London. With a 10.00 am start time there were only about ten ordinary shareholders there.
This company provides ticketing and queuing systems for theme parks and other visitor attractions. It had a great share price performance under the management of former CEO and then Executive Chairman Tom Burnet (who is still on the board as a non-exec director) until October 2018 when the ...
AB Dynamics Placing, and Metro Bank Troubles
AB Dynamics (ABDP) announced a placing to raise £50 million this morning. The money will be used to finance potential acquisitions, add production capacity and meet working capital requirements. This company provides vehicle testing systems and has been rapidly expanding recently. The share price has also been rising like a rocket in the last few weeks and on fundamentals the company is now very highly rated – prospective p/e for the current year is 47. So perhaps the company just saw ...
Chas Stanley Prices Crest Membership At Ridiculous Level
Charles Stanley have sent out a letter to all their customers who use Personal Crest accounts that in future they will be charged £504 per annum (inc. VAT). Although the company stopped offering the service to new customers some time ago, existing users have in some cases been paying nothing to be a Personal Crest member. They clearly want to get rid of all such users of their service, include those using the low-cost Chas Stanley Direct platform because £504 is ...
Response to BEIS on the FRC Kingman proposals
In a detailed joint ShareSoc-UKSA 12-page Response to BEIS on the FRC Kingman proposals, we said we support the general thrust of the Kingman proposals. Kingman is proposing a new authority to replace the FRC.
We also made some more general points:
Sound financial reporting is a basic prerequisite for good stewardship. However, no matter how good the financial reporting is, if a significant proportion of investors are disenfranchised and unable to make their voice heard, many of the benefits of better financial reporting will ...
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