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.
If you would like to be notified about new posts to our blog you can opt-in to our Weekly Wrap-Up Email service. If you are a member of ShareSoc select the “Weekly Wrap-Up Email” option here. If you are not a member select the “Information and Education Services” option here.
In recent months ShareSoc began the process of transformation to appeal to a wider circle of investors and stakeholders and to accelerate our growth. This revealed fundamental differences of opinion within the board about ShareSoc's purpose and governance, and in particular its role as a campaigning organisation. As a result of those differences several ShareSoc board members have chosen to step down.
The Board thanks Sheryl Cuisia, Karin Schulte, Chris Spencer-Phillips for their service and support and wishes them well in their ...
Policy and Campaigns – Progress Update 4 April 2022
Since our last update in November 2021 (see page 16 here), we have worked on:
1. Consultation responses and government lobbying
2. Woodford Campaign
3. Voting Guidance and Shareholder Engagement
4. Shareholder Rights/Nominees
5. SVS/ITI
6. FCA liaison
7. FRC, BEIS, etc liaison
8. Campaigns
9. AIM regulation
1. Consultation responses and government lobbying. This continues to be a major area of work, where ShareSoc represents the interests of individual investors. We have submitted responses to:
• FRC Endorsement Board – Draft Endorsement Criteria ...
1. Leigh Day achieved a significant legal milestone and submitted their court proceedings against Link on 27 September. Leigh Day will shortly be submitting their particulars of claim, which is the next key milestone in the legal process.
2. ShareSoc is planning a free webinar “Woodford – Real Progress” to update everyone on the latest progress on the claim, and news about regulation, retribution and redress. Please reserve the date - 28 June at 6pm. Further details will be sent out in ...
After a 3 month trial, verdicts have been reached in the prosecution of former Redcentric directors by the FCA.
The FCA announced that the former Redcentric CFO had been sentenced to 5½ years imprisonment for two offences of making false and misleading statements to the market, and three offences of false accounting. In addition, the former Finance Director who had pled guilty was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment on charges of making false statements and false accounting. These former directors will also ...
Book Review by ShareSoc Director Cliff Weight
Brilliant, insightful, fun and easy to read short book on how ordinary people can change the way that capitalism works. Merryn Somerset Webb’s Share Power is a page turner. I recommend all ShareSoc members buy a copy and read its 145 pages.
Should companies care about climate change? Should they be vanquishing the gender pay gap? Should they be advancing human rights in their supply chains? With 11 million people owning shares directly or indirectly, it’s ...
In a joint UKSA/ShareSoc response on 4 Feb 2022, we said we do not agree with your overall tentative conclusion that IFRS 17 meets the criteria of understandability, relevance, reliability and comparability required of the financial information needed for making economic decisions and assessing the stewardship of management.
The consultation paper can be read here: https://assets-eu-01.kc-usercontent.com/99102f2b-dbd8-0186-f681-303b06237bb2/2994263f-e03c-45d4-9fcd-933f0b19cb56/UKEB%20IFRS%2017%20DECA.pdf
Our full response can be read here UKEB-Invitation-to-Comment-IFRS-17-ECA-UKSA-ShareSoc-response
by Cliff Weight, Policy Director, ShareSoc
ShareSoc is a member of BETTER FINANCE, who represent c. 28 European shareholder organisations. Better Finance have just issued a report that finds that commission-based distribution models cost individual investors up to 15% of their investments in sales commissions and generate conflicts of interest which severely hurt their performance.
Click here to read the full press release and access the full report.
In a detailed 12 page response to the FCA Consultation, ShareSoc made the following key points:
We welcome consultation paper CP21/36 and its proposed new Consumer Duty, which we believe will set clearer and higher standards.
We believe that the proposal should be labelled as a Duty of Care. We do not understand why the FCA has not done this. We also believe it is not clear whether the FCA’s central proposal is intended to create a duty of care. We ...
We're delighted to present our first ShareSoc Informer issue for 2022.
We lead with an introduction to our new Chair, Sheryl Cuisia, who took over the role from Mark Northway at the beginning of the year and who is spearheading an executive-led transformation process to prepare ShareSoc for its next phase of development.
Faith Glasgow looks at the rising spectre of inflation and examines the tools available to closed-end funds for combatting rising consumer prices.
The Informer is a great way to catch up with what ShareSoc has ...
The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc.
I have been a shareholder in Hargreave Hale AIM VCT (HHV) for quite some time and have been happy with the tax free dividend stream they have sent me over the years. As usual, I recently received the AGM proxy form for the 3rd February AGM and was reviewing the annual report when something caught my attention. An investee company called Honest Brew (HB), which ...
