Regulations and Law

The HBOS Report – It’s Finally Here

The Prudential Regulatory Authority and the Bank of England today published the report of the inquiry into the failure of HBOS Plc. Those who were investors in the company at the time, or who suffered as a consequence of the bail-out of the company via a merger with LloydsTSB, will not need to be told what happened and why. This report does not add a lot to the story as the defects in the management of the HBOS are now well ...

Stockbroker Transfers – Why So Long?

  Why, oh why, do transfers between stockbrokers take so long? Having just suffered the second delay of three months or more to simply switch from using one stockbroker (or "investment platform" as some now prefer to call themselves) to another, I am now writing to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to demand some action on behalf of investors. Other ShareSoc Members have reported similar delays on a regular basis and I am building up a portfolio of cases to support our submission ...

Better Finance Press Release on Shareholder Rights Directive

The following press release has just been issued by Better Finance - an organisation that represents private investor associations: PRESS RELEASE A CAPITAL MARKETS UNION WITHOUT A SINGLE MARKET FOR EU-WIDE SHAREHOLDER ENGAGEMENT Brussels, 9 November 2015 – The Commission’s proposal for the review of the Shareholder Rights Directive (SRD), aimed at countering wide-spread short-termism in favour of a long-term perspective in the governance of listed companies by stimulating stronger shareholder engagement, was presented to the European Parliament (EP) and Council. Whereas the EP ...

Tweeting False Information is a Crime

Yes tweeting false information is a crime, at least in the USA. Scottish trader James Craig has been charged by US prosecutors with fraud after he set up two twitter accounts and distributed false information on US firms Audience and Sarepta. This caused the share prices of those companies to fall by 28% and 16% and caused investors to lose over £1 million. Mr Craig has now disappeared. Mr Craig used Twitter account names that were similar to those of Muddy Waters ...

Globo – the Last Straw

Subsequent to my last blog post which covered the attack by Quintessential Capital Management (QCM) on Globo, this morning the company has made three further announcements: After an emergency board meeting, the CEO (Costis Papadimitrakopoulos), and the CFO (Dimitris Gryparis) have resigned and the COO has been suspended. A committee of non-executive directors has taken over after "certain matters regarding the falsification of data and the misrepresentations of the Company's financial position" were brought to their attention. The joint corporate broker, ...

Blogging and Shorting – Globo and Valeant

An organisation called Quintessential Capital Management (QCM) published a report on the 22nd October on Globo. The next morning the shares were suspended at the request of the company so as to enable them to provide a detailed response but they immediately refuted all the allegations in the report. QCM acknowledged that they are active in short selling and have taken a short position in Globo. They also have links to Simon Cawkwell who was also involved in a similar attack on ...

After the Storm, at the High Pay Centre

I attended a seminar organised by the High Pay Centre last night on the new public company pay regulations introduced two years ago. Speakers were Vince Cable who lead those changes when he was in power, and Ben Chu of The Independent, with the former promoting his new book "After the Storm". Vince covered some past history and his current concerns. That included a comment that interest rates were now lower than they had ever been before - indeed since Babylonian times ...

Possible Volkswagen Legal Action

The following note has been issued by Better Finance (a European Association of private investor groups of which ShareSoc is a member). It is self explanatory. Dear Members, In September, Volkswagen admitted that an estimated 11 million cars worldwide were involved in the falsified emission reports. Reports have emerged that Volkswagen’s top management had been aware of the deception since before the official ad-hoc announcement. Representing VW shareholders, the German investor association DSW, a member organisation of Better Finance, is examining the possibility ...

Pension Reforms – FCA Rule Changes to Protect Fools

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is concerned that many people are taking cash out of their pension pots and investing it in risky propositions or blowing it without taking suitable advice. They have launched a new public consultation therefore on rule book changes under the title "Pension reforms - proposed changes to our rules and guidance". They must consider it urgent as we only have to the end of October to respond. One particular change that might affect our readers is that ...

Hargreaves Lansdown and opaque accounts

Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.), who claim to be the largest UK investment platform, announced their Preliminary Results yesterday (9/9/2015). I have made some comments recently about the benefits stockbrokers receive from client cash funds, and in particular the fact that dividends received by holders of nominee accounts are received and retained by the broker unless asked for, instead of being paid direct to the shareholder as happens when you are on the share register. So I thought it useful to look at ...