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.
Greggs (GRG) held their Annual General Meeting today. This was a “closed” meeting but with no electronic access provided. Bearing in mind the size of the company, it seems unreasonable that they could not have provided shareholder access.
But I note that the votes reported show that several directors received substantial votes against. For example Ian Durant at 4.8% and Sandra Turner at 7.7%. I wonder why? There were also substantial numbers of votes withheld but no explanation has been given.
One advantage ...
by Cliff Weight, Sharesoc Director.
Allenby have just published this very informative review of AIM: http://www.allenbycapital.com/research_1214_2120899233.pdf which contains many interesting statistics.
The AIM market is at the same level it was 20 years ago, but the journey between has been very volatile. However the last 5 years, with the exception of last March's blip, has been most encouraging. It may be that fewer scandals than in the past have occurred. However ShareSoc is still campaigning hard to get better regulation of the AIM ...
As it’s Friday afternoon with not much happening, and I have completed my latest complaint about the time it’s taking to complete a SIPP platform transfer, I decided to have a look at the public consultation on “Restoring Trust in Audit and Corporate Governance” from the BEIS Department.
This is a quite horrendous consultation on the Government’s proposals to improve audit standards and director behaviour as foretold in the Kingman and Brydon reviews, with proposals for a new regulatory body (ARGA). That’s ...
In April 2021, we worked on:
Woodford Campaign: Leigh Day are the only claim with insurance and funding in place. Harcus Parker have funding but do not have ATE insurance. RGL have neither insurance nor funding (other than funding for an initial step). Leigh Day (whose claim ShareSoc have endorsed) now have c 10,000 claimants registered and are the leading claim.
Sirius Minerals Shareholder Group, Sirius Claim Group: A 20 page review of the evidence was finalised in April ...
The Daily Mail quoted ShareSoc Director Cliff Weight in its 2 May Aviva article https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-9535371/Aviva-faces-investor-revolt-preference-shares-scandal.html
Aviva faces an investor revolt this week after angering shareholders by deciding not to claw back fees from directors who oversaw a preference shares scandal.
The insurer was rocked in 2018 when it said it was considering buying back shares marketed as 'irredeemable' for less than they were trading at.
It reneged on the announcement days later, by which time the shares had tumbled.
It was forced to compensate investors. ...
The SFO has recently been in touch with registered shareholders of Patisserie Valerie (CAKE). But if, like most shareholders, your shares were held in a nominee account, they probably won't have been able to contact you.
They are asking for shareholders to complete a questionnaire to assist them with their enquiries into allegations of fraud at that company. You can find full details and the questionnaire here: https://www.sfo.gov.uk/cases/patisserie-holdings-plc/
Mark Bentley, Director, ShareSoc
It is now more than a year since we released a major upgrade to ShareSoc's website, fully described here: https://www.sharesoc.org/sharesoc-news/sharesoc-website-upgrade/. A key aspect of this upgrade was the integration of forum functionality previously provided by our separate members' network website. That website is based on the Ning software service.
As our new forums have now been operating successfully for more than a year, we intend to discontinue the old Ning site within the next month. Before the transition recent/important content was migrated ...
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 ...
