Regulations and Law

Law Commission Error on Segregated Accounts

Post Date: November 1, 2019

In a previous blog post on the Law Commission’s consultation on Intermediated Securities I queried their claim that all investors in nominee accounts had the option to use a...

Woodford, Buffett Bot and FRC Survey

Post Date: October 20, 2019

There was a very good article in the FT on Saturday on the “rise and fall of a rock star fund manager”, i.e. Neil Woodford. Essential reading for those who...

Woodford and Hargreaves Lansdown

Post Date: October 18, 2019

To follow up on my previous blog post over the collapse of Woodford Investment Management and how to avoid dud managers, the focus has now turned in the national...

Burford – a chance to clear out the stables or a case of nothing to see?

Post Date: October 1, 2019

The Burford Capital soap opera rumbles on, and for those who don’t hold shares, the temptation to ignore the story, or even worse, fall into the lazy belief that...

An Update on SVS Securities

Post Date: September 14, 2019

On 5th August the FCA announced that broker SVS Securities had entered Special Administration. Once again, as in the case of Beaufort Securities, this is a situation that will...

Burford, GE and Media Regulation

Post Date: August 29, 2019

As most readers will be aware, Burford Capital (BUR) has been under attack by Muddy Waters over its accounts, corporate governance and other matters. Muddy Waters, led by Carson...

Voting Problems, Computershare, Albion Venture Capital and PLAIN ENGLISH.

Post Date: August 20, 2019

By Cliff Weight Computershare have refused to accept a vote instruction for the Albion Venture Capital AGM, because it was sent to them electronically. It was signed, scanned and sent to them by email. They say that the meeting notice says what form the instruction must be sent and this overrides the Companies Act, CA2006 S333. The notice says the instruction must be sent to Computershare, but does not say how (see below for the precise wording used). In this modern age, surely ...

Burford – Illegal Market Manipulation?

Post Date: August 12, 2019

Burford Capital (BUR) have issued an announcement that makes a number of allegations about the events surrounding the recent shorting attack on the company involving Muddy Waters. It includes: Spoofing and layering to move the share price, e.g. putting in numerous share sales on the order book and cancelling them before they can be filled. That includes numerous such transactions just before Muddy Waters issued a tweet giving Burford as the target, and as that tweet was delayed only Muddy Waters ...

FRC Enforcement of its Rules

Post Date: August 6, 2019

by Cliff Weight, ShareSoc Director Very belatedly, the FRC has substantially increased tough action to tackle poor quality audit. To me, these were the key words which showed that for the last ten years the FRC had dreadfully understaffed this activity - "The Enforcement Division has grown significantly in recent years reflecting the FRC’s investment in what has become recognised as one of the organisation’s key functions. A decade ago the team comprised just six members. By 31 March 2019 it had been expanded to ...

Redcentric (RCN) Campaign: Important Developments

Post Date: June 29, 2019

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 ...

Bonmarché Update, FCA Grilling over Woodford and Amati AIM VCT AGM

Post Date: June 28, 2019

Yesterday Bonmarché (BON) conceded defeat in its opposition to a takeover bid at 11.4p. On the 17th May it had rejected the bid because it “materially undervalues Bonmarché and its prospects”. The share price of this women’s clothing retailer was over 100p a year ago but the latest trading review suggests sales are dire because of underlying weakness in the clothing market and “a lack of seasonal weather”. Auditors might have qualified the accounts due to be published soon due to ...

Shareholder Rights Being Eroded

Post Date: June 22, 2019

There is a good article in the Financial Times today (Saturday 22/6/2019) which is headlined “UK shareholder rights being eroded”. As the article says, almost no investors who buy shares legally own the shares they have bought, which rather surprises them. That’s because most of them buy via nominee accounts operated by stockbrokers and platforms. Not only that, but most nominee accounts are “pooled” accounts so even identifying who are the “beneficial owners” is not always easy. Does it matter? Yes it ...

Regulations and Law

Become a free Associate ShareSoc member