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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Investors may have noticed that the pound is in free fall and heading towards US$1.20. That’s near the low after the initial Brexit vote. Pundits, not that they can be relied on for forex forecasts, suggest it could go lower now that we seem to be heading for a “no-deal” Brexit.
With the pound falling, and potential damage to the UK economy from a hard Brexit, investors should surely have been avoiding companies reliant on UK sales, or UK consumers, or those ...
Like many private investors, I use the Stockopedia software to provide me with a summary of key financial information on a company. I also use it to provide “alerts” on price changes and for occasional stock screening. It’s one of the key elements in my share portfolio management. It has always been quick and easy to use, without too much complexity. They have just released a new version of the software that now supports mobile devices much better – that was ...
By Cliff Weight, ShareSoc Director
I was pleased to see the highly respected and influential Investors Chronicle taking an interest in and writing a balance article on the Ventus funds, see
https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/comment/2019/07/18/limits-of-influence/ The IC seems to think ShareSoc is leading and driving the campaign, whereas the campaign leader is Nick Curtis, but other than this point I think it is a very good article.
What is becoming apparent is how extremely difficult it is to unseat directors, because the playing field is tilted so ...
Apparently bankers still live in an unreal world so far as most of us are concerned, even after the financial crisis of ten years ago when their remuneration was attacked. The Financial Times covered two stories on the pay of bankers in today’s edition (16/7/2019). The first was on the opposition to pay at Standard Chartered and comments from the CEO, Bill Winters, on it after a vote of almost 40% against their pay policy in May. The concern is mainly ...
Albion Venture Capital Trust plc is proposing to rebase the incentive fee for its investment manager. The proposal looks too generous and will result in far too much of the value going to the managers and too little to shareholders. The new proposed threshold of RPI plus 2% is too low and the 20% share is too high. It would be very bad precedent if this was passed and became the norm for other VCTs. I recommend shareholders attend the AGM ...
Cliff Weight asks if Thomas Cook were misleading investors and if the FCA should investigate.
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-7246503/Thomas-Cook-slammed-misleading-investors-lifeline.html
The 3 May RNS looks unduly optimistic in the light of today’s announcement. Thomas Cook’s directors need to be held to account for making such positive statements, which may have misled many individual investors.
The shares were shorted over 10% before the 12 July announcement. This suggests the directors were slow to act to inform the market. Individual investors have a right to be treated fairly and prima ...
Chain maker Renold (RNO) has provided the latest example of sloppy accounting work. On the 9th July it reported that it had identified accounting issues in the three years ending March 2017, 2018 and 2019. Assets and profits were overstated and liabilities were understated in the Torque Transmission division. In total adjusted operating profits were overstated by £1.8 million. As a result the AGM is being postponed to give time for revising the Annual Accounts. Their auditors are Deloitte.
The Financial Reporting ...
Press release 111 - It is time for a negotiated settlement for European investors:
VW has been dragging its feet over European claims
The company has paid out 30 billion EUR in the US
This approach is unfair and unjust to European investors
Delaying tactics have not worked; legal pressure is mounting
The two leading investor protection associations call for a negotiated settlement
The World Federation of Investors and BETTER FINANCE, the two leading investor protection associations, have ...
On Friday (5th July) the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) published their second report on the simplification of Inheritance Tax (IHT). You only need to read the report to see how complex it is at present. They have made some recommendations for changes but they are relatively minor. Major changes were ruled out. Even the suggested changes need to be accepted by the Treasury so they may not be implemented, and even if they are it appears likely that they would ...
There have been important developments in our campaign regarding the accounting scandal at IT service group, Redcentric.
Firstly the FRC have moved at "lightning speed" (by their usually interminable standards), and published their findings in little more than two years after the matter was brought to their attention. And secondly there is news on the parallel FCA investigation in Redcentric's recently published annual results for 2018/19.
FRC Report
The FRC concluded that Redcentric's auditors, PwC, did not meet expected professional standards in their audits ...
