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.
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Pre-pack administrations, where a company is sold within hours with no publicity, and often to “connected” persons (e.g. existing management) has been widely criticised. It’s often a simple way for companies to dump their liabilities and yet continue in business. This is what I said in the case of the pre-pack at House of Fraser: “There can be a number of reasons for doing so but in essence it’s very typical of what happens with pre-packs where the rush to complete ...
It is an unfortunate feature of Covid regulations that many companies have used the waivers contained in those regs to avoid meeting with their shareholders at AGMs.
It is therefore gratifying to see that some companies are at least making some effort to provide a virtual forum to meet investors.
Two companies that I follow which have offered such forums are the RIT Capital Partners investment trust (RCP) and AstraZeneca (AZN). Unfortunately, however, there is a snag. RCP say:
You will be able to ...
By Cliff Weight, ShareSoc Director. I hold shares in DDDD.
I am not sure if I am happy or angry with 4D Pharma. Duncan Peyton (Chief Executive Officer) and Alex Stevenson (Chief Scientific Officer) have each subscribed £725,000 for shares in the placing, which in total raised £20m at a price of 110p. Their commitment and increased skin in the game is excellent and praiseworthy.
The share price this morning is 118p. So those who invested at 110p have a modest gain of 7%.
However ...
I have long complained about directors serving on boards for longer than 9 years. The UK Corporate Governance Code (which you can easily find on the web) says any director who serves for more than 9 years cannot be considered “independent” and there should be a majority of independent directors.
When the UK Corporate Governance Code was drafted, this principle of avoiding long-serving directors was introduced and I consider it a very sound principle. But investment trusts (including Venture Capital Trusts) continue ...
I commented last month on an article in Investors Chronicle by Mary McDougall on the subject of platform transfers, and how they are inordinately slow. Despite past efforts by the FCA, the situation does not seem to be getting any better. My latest transfer, which was commenced on the 12th of January, is still not complete. The shareholdings have recently been transferred to the selected new platform but not the substantial cash holding in the portfolio.
But according to the latest article ...
ShareSoc News Item by Cliff Weight, Director
At the 9 March 2021 Woodford webinar, there were over 100 questions from the 947 people registered. Many were answered on the night. Leigh Day have now produced answers to the unanswered questions which are conveniently grouped into 7 different themes.
Mello Woodford webinar - questions and Leigh Day responses final (07-04-2021)
In February and March 2021, we worked on:
1. Woodford Campaign: Leigh Day now have their funding and insurance in place and have submitted their letter before action (LBA). 947 people registered for the joint ShareSoc/Mello event on 9th March which went well with much very positive feedback.
2. Sirius Minerals Shareholder Group: We continue to review the evidence and hope to move to the next stage soon.
3. Voting Guidance and Shareholder engagement: We continue to test our new ideas with a pilot ...
The Investors Chronicle have published on 30 March 2021 a useful table comparing the 4 ongoing Woodford Claims:
(note, as at 10 June 2022, Leigh Day have >12,000 claimants and Harcus Parker c 7,500. ShareSoc do not know any more recent numbers for RGL and Slater & Gordon.)
ShareSoc endorsed the Leigh Day Claim, in November 2020 on the basis of information available at that time. The table highlights that the Leigh Day claim and Harcus Parker claim are both against Link, both ...
ShareSoc News Item by Cliff Weight, Director
117 people registered for our 23 March 2021 webinar and at least 94 attended, much higher than the 26 the previous year at the East India Club. The organisers received much positive feedback, for which they are grateful, and indicates that similar future events should be planned. At the webinar:
Cliff Weight did a brief introduction of why the VCT Investors Group was formed and why it exists – to lobby on poor performance, poor ...
Give Growing Companies Better Access to Retail Shareholders to Boost the UK Economy
ShareSoc News Item by Mike Dennis, Director
A recent survey1 of ShareSoc members was undertaken in conjunction with Aquis Stock Exchange (AQSE) and it has revealed that many individual investors do not feel they have good, equal access to growth stocks.
Key findings of the survey1
55% of individual investors polled feel they don’t have, or aren’t sure they have, good access to growth companies
Over 80% of respondents feel individual ...
