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View all Representation →Consultations- Digitisation Taskforce – Final Report
- FCA Consults on Fund Product Information and Cost Disclosure CP24/30 – ShareSoc Responds
- FRC Consults on UK Stewardship Code – ShareSoc Responds
- FCA Consultation – Modernising Redress
- HMRC Consultation – IHT on Pensions
- ShareSoc Evidence to Lords on FCA Enforcement
- ShareSoc supports FCA proposal for criminal background checks on owners and controllers of financial institutions
- UK ISA: ShareSoc submits consultation response
- FCA Consultation on Enforcement Practice & Transparency
- ShareSoc response to House of Commons Education Select Committee
- UKSA and ShareSoc Submission to Labour Party Review of Financial Services
- FCA Consultation GC23/2 Financial Promotions on Social Media
- VIEW ALL CONSULTATIONS
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Guaranteed Rights for All Shareholders – Campaign Launch Meeting
Post Date: September 2, 2014
On the 14th October 2014 ShareSoc is launching a campaign to give full rights to ALL shareholders.
At present most private investors purchase shares in nominee accounts. With a very few exceptions this means that they have no automatic rights to vote, to attend General Meetings of companies or even receive information on the affairs of the company. Investors in public companies have been disenfranchised and their rights undermined.
The meeting on the 14th October 2014 will explain how and why this situation ...
New boards elected at Oxford Technology VCTs
Post Date: August 27, 2014
Today all four of the Oxford Technology VCTs held their Annual General Meetings.
The meetings were well attended as Oxford Technology VCT (OXT) and Oxford Technology 3 VCT (OTT) previously had their VCT status withdrawn by HMRC, although this has now been temporarily "set aside" while an appeal is processed. ShareSoc formed a "Shareholder Action Group" with a committee of interested shareholders to make representations on this matter and protect their interests.
We also pushed for changes to the corporate governance of these ...
Shareholders voting without knowing what for at Majestic Wine
Post Date: August 7, 2014
Shareholders at Majestic Wine were given a proxy voting form that included two common resolutions - a vote on the Remuneration Report and a vote on Remuneration Policy. But there was no description of the Remuneration Policy in the Annual Report. As a shareholder in the company, I found this somewhat baffling and therefore voted against the second of those resolutions on the basis of not knowing what I might be voting for.
The company subsequently withdrew those resolutions on the because ...
Giving Personal Shareowners a Voice
Post Date: July 4, 2014
"Giving Personal Shareowners a Voice" was the title of a meeting yesterday (3/7/2014) organised by Gavin Oldham of The Share Centre. It was organised to discuss a number of concerns about shareholder engagement with companies and the rights of individual shareholders. It was attended by a number of "stakeholders" interested in this area including representatives from the BIS, FRC, WMA, Wider Share Ownership Council, ShareAction, UKSA, ICSA, a number of journalists and myself representing ShareSoc.
The first topic covered was the failure ...
Barclays wins vote on pay
Post Date: April 25, 2014
Barclays Bank Annual General Meeting yesterday showed how difficult it is to get excessive pay awards voted down. Despite strong opposition from PIRC, F&C and Standard Life (the latter actually spoke at the meeting which is unusual for institutions), only 24% of votes were cast against the Remuneration Report with an even lower number against the Remuneration Policy. There were a number of shareholders who abstained so the media commonly reported 34% of shareholders as failing to support the board, but ...
Insurance companies and Kentz
Post Date: April 3, 2014
With the attack by the Government on annuities in the budget and the revelation that the FCA is to look into the treatment of some policyholders such as those in "closed" funds, both investors in these companies and their directors must be somewhat incensed. Indeed the Financial Times reported this morning that half a dozen of the City's top institutional investors have consulted a leading law firm over alleged "market abuse" in the way the latter review was disclosed. It seems ...
Shareholder Activism wins at Leaf Clean Energy
Post Date: March 27, 2014
Leaf Clean Energy (LEAF) is an investment trust that specialises in "renewable energy and sustainable technology". It raised $386 million in 2007 but subsequently bought back some of its shares giving an effective net figure of $307m. At June 2013, net assets were reported as $183m, i.e. substantial losses have been made, and the latest interim figures announced yesterday (26/3/2014) reported another $1.8m of losses. A more extensive analysis of the issues at the company was given in the last ShareSoc ...
Remuneration Policies and Baronsmead VCT 3
Post Date: March 10, 2014
The new Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act requires public companies to take a vote on Remuneration Policy, i.e. a forwarded looking binding vote for the next three years, as opposed to the non-binding retrospective one on the Remuneration Report with which we are all familiar. The latter will still be present, and investors might worry that the former will be a long-winded and tedious document that they will need to plough through (rather like the multi-page Remuneration Reports from large companies).
There have ...
Barclays – Who benefits?
Post Date: February 12, 2014
Barclays Bank announced their final results yesterday. The results did not match expectations and the shares fell 4% on the day. The national media led with the story that the company had still increased the bonus pool even so, and that the company now pays out more in bonuses than it pays in dividends to shareholders.
The CEO, Antony Jenkins, gave the usual excuse for the high pay levels - that they need to compete on the international scene for top class ...
Nominee system defeats shareholder voting
Post Date: January 30, 2014
ShareSoc has recently issued a survey to our Members and the public covering their voting and attendance at General Meetings and the prevalence of the use of nominee accounts. The results demonstrate that the nominee account system undermines shareholders' ability to vote at the General Meetings of the companies they own.Nominee accounts are now the commonest form in which investors hold shares in companies (89% of ShareSoc Members held some shares in a nominee account, as opposed to the use of ...
Eurofinuse adopts manifesto
Post Date: January 27, 2014
Eurofinuse, a representative body for European shareholder organisations of which ShareSoc is a Member, has adopted a "Better Finance Manifesto". They are launching this before the European Parliament elections in May to try and influence politicians to adopt policies to protect savers and investors over the coming years.Although some of the manifesto policies are focussed on problems in other countries in Europe than the UK, there are many meritorious aspects. Here's just a few of the issues they cover:1. That there ...
Hargreaves Lansdown doubles charges for some investors
Post Date: January 17, 2014
On the 15th January Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) announced new charges on its investment platform, which is one of the most widely used by private investors. The changes are no doubt provoked by the new rules whereby funds can no longer pass part of their charges back to HL, as a result of the RDR (Retail Distribution Review). But the changes will mean that the annual fees paid to HL by some investors will double. ShareSoc has issued a press release explaining ...
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