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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I have held shares in Renew Holdings (AIM:RNWH) since 2006. It has been my most profitable single investment, due to opportunities to add at very low prices in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
Unfortunately, however, in recent years it has developed an unfortunate tendency to exclude individual investors from its results meetings.
Renew published its preliminary results for Y/E September 2020 today. The announcement included an invitation to "sell-side analysts and investors" to attend a virtual meeting, with instructions to contact their ...
by Cliff Weight, ShareSoc Director
Please note the views expressed in this blog are my personal ones. I hold shares in SEC and Gresham House.
Within 6 months of manager change and change of lead fund manager and break on SLA marketing JV, the largest shareholder puts stock into hands of an arb. What will happen next?
The background is in my 2 previous blogs:
https://www.sharesoc.org/blog/collective-investments/investment-trust-discounts-what-to-do-about-them-and-sec-example/
https://www.sharesoc.org/blog/collective-investments/nearly-20-vote-against-strategic-equity-capitalsec-agm-resolution/
RIT recently sold its 13% holding in SEC at a discount, of 22.8% - 9.47m shares traded at 202.5p on17th ...
I have recently taken a strong interest in those shares that are involved in electrification of the world. It’s not just the UK Prime Minister who wants to save the world from global warming and air pollution with Joe Biden likely to be much more environmentally conscious than Donald Trump. Those companies or trusts that are involved in alternative energy sources such as wind and solar, and systems to manage the fluctuations they impose on the grid, are of particular interest.
One ...
I attended two seminars organised by ShareSoc and UKSA with the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) yesterday (24/11/2020) and the day before. The first session was about the “ARGA transformation”, i.e. the steps being taken to improve the audits of companies and the reporting of accounts following the Kingman review two years ago. ARGA stands for Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority which will be the new name for the FRC.
Before reporting on the meeting, it’s worth noting the latest example of how ...
NewRiver has shown the way with their interim results call today.
Their call was open to all investors and analysts simultaneously, providing a truly level playing field for individual investors. The call allowed all participants to ask questions and hear the answers.
Sadly, this is unusual, with most companies either offering their individual investors a separate, later results call, or not offering anything at all for individual investors, whilst providing an opportunity only for analysts and institutions to quiz management.
ShareSoc calls on all ...
The AA 86% share price decline, coming on top of the Saga and Aston Martin makes me wonder if PE firms and others are exploiting those retail investors willing to buy into a fashionable story.
I have to admit to losing money on Saga, whose share price is down 90% from its 2016 high. My mother-in-law was a huge fan of Saga and she gave me a present of Saga membership when I was 50, so when they were floated, I and ...
I listened in to a Volex webinar on 11th November which was very well attended and presented.
I have been a shareholder in Volex for some while and they have done very well achieving their targets of raising their gross margins by improving their product mix, dropping much of their lower margin cables business. Margins have been increased to 10.3% and they are doing well with their electric vehicle cables as the growth in this market continues.
Volex have manufacturing operations in China, ...
The Daily Telegraph and some other sources have reported that the liquidators of Patisserie Valerie (CAKE) have filed a claim in the High Court against Grant Thornton over the audits of Patisserie Valerie in the years before it went into administration.
I reported previously that the accounts of Patisserie were a complete fiction – see Reference 1 below – with the assets of the firm overstated by more than £90 million.
The liquidators are FRP Advisory and they have appointed lawyers Mischon de ...
A ShareSoc News item written by ShareSoc Director Cliff Weight
Update 1, 19 Nov 2020, SHARESOC LAUNCHES WOODFORD CAMPAIGN
Our primary objectives are:
to facilitate communication between Woodford investors
to help Woodford investors seek compensation for their losses where possibe
to ensure that those who contributed to those losses through action or inaction are held to account
to bring about changes in the regulations and regulatory enforcement to ensure this type of scandal does not happen again
We are pleased that several legal initiatives have ...
The Law Commission has published a “scoping paper” on Intermediated Securities (See Reference 1 below). This might sound a pretty dry technical subject but the subtitle of the report asks the important question – it covers “Who Owns Your Shares?”
I have written about the problem of the growth in the use of nominee accounts as on-line platforms have replaced share certificates many times in the past. ShareSoc has a web page with voluminous information on this subject including reports written by ...
