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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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Cladding Rectification – Persimmon et al.

The views expressed in this article represent those of the author, not necessarily those of ShareSoc. My first big investment mistake of the year came to light yesterday. In October last year I started to buy a holding in Persimmon (PSN). The outlook for the housing market seemed bright and the company was trading on a prospective p/e of 11 with a yield of 8.6%. Revenue and earnings growth were forecast for the next couple of years. But Michael Gove yesterday put a ...

Portfolio Review 2021 – Mark Bentley

This article reflects the opinions of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Introduction Following on from my review in 2020, I have now conducted a similar exercise for 2021. See last year's article for an explanation of my investment objectives, strategy, "asset types" and investment accounts. 2021 was "a year of two halves" with my holdings roaring ahead in the first half and then a bit of a rollercoaster ride since September. These market gyrations are difficult psychologically but having lived through ...

A Bumper Edition of Investors Chronicle

The opinions expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Over the Christmas period we were treated to a bumper edition of the Investors’ Chronicle. And I have to say that this magazine has improved of late under the editorship of Rosie Carr. Whether she has a bigger budget or is just picking better writers I do not know but she certainly deserved the job after working for the magazine for many years. I’ll pick out ...

Discrimination Against High Net Worth Individuals?

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc The cost of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme has been increasing substantially in recent years, as more mis-selling scandals have proliferated and firms have gone bust. This has led to complaints from those firms who fund the scheme and has led the FCA to undertake a “Compensation Framework Review”. This includes looking at possible changes to the scope of protection such as limiting it to “mainstream” ...

Baronsmead VCT – More Corporate Governance Issues

The opinions expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I mentioned in a previous blog post that covered Northern Venture Trust that “VCTs are a perpetual problem in relation to excessive management fees, poor corporate governance, and general behaviour prejudicial to the interests of shareholders”. Now we have an AGM for Baronsmead VCT (BVT) in prospect on the 16th February. As a holder I will be expressing the following concerns to the Chairman: In the ...

Policy and Campaigns – Progress Update 20 Dec 2021

Since Oct 12 (see previous update here), we have worked on: Audit and Governance reform: many members have told us of their concerns about the disasters at Carillion and many others. We view the audit and governance reforms as crucial and have pressed for these to be moved forward as quickly as possible. We are concerned about lobbying to slow down this progress and co-signed a letter to the FT which was published on 12 Nov. 21. Woodford Campaign: ...

Laggard DotDigital: how not to run an AGM

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I have been a shareholder of DotDigital for 8 years now and I was appalled by the manner in which the virtual AGM that I have just attended was conducted. Shareholders were advised that in person attendance would not be possible, so a virtual AGM would be provided via the Investor-Meet-Company (IMC) platform. I duly completed the necessary formalities and looked forward to asking my questions ...

Sirius Minerals Update #15

Following the update in May, the Sirius Claim Group has been working with potential legal partners to consider potential claims. There are a number of different claims that are being considered but, in all cases, they must pass the significant challenge of not only being considered technically viable by both legal and financial partners but also, that any derived awards/damages/compensation must substantiate the time, effort and risk of pursuing.  It follows therefore, that reviewing potential claims is a time consuming and very detailed piece of ...

New Year Forecasts and Internet Retailers

The views expressed in this article are those of its author, not necessarily those of ShareSoc. It’s that time of year when share tipsters start to issue their bets for the New Year. But the collapse of on-line grocer Farmdrop and recent profit warning from Boohoo (BOO) prompts me to think that one thing I will be avoiding next year is on-line retailers apart possibly from the gorillas already in that space. Unlisted Farmdrop went out of business a few days ago so ...

Northern Venture Trust and Other VCTs

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Northern Venture Trust (NVT) recently published their Annual Report. It shows that the manager (now Mercia) collected a performance fee of £2.5 million which on my calculation raised the overall fees and expenses as a percentage of closing net asset value to 4.5%. This is way too high in my opinion even allowing for the work involved in managing a portfolio of small, unlisted investments. When ...
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