ShareSoc News

Response to the Asset Management Market Study

ShareSoc submitted the following comments to the FCA on the Asset Management Market Study - Interim Report: Asset-Management-Study

ShareSoc Issues Response to Green Paper on Corporate Governance Reform

PRESS RELEASE 89 20/02/2017 How to fix the ills of the UK Corporate Governance scene? ShareSoc and UKSA have given their solutions in a response to the Government Green Paper on Corporate Governance Reform. We have emphasised that the following are the key issues: 1. Engagement between shareholders and companies is not working. Shareholders are not exercising effective stewardship and control, and boards are failing to fulfil their fiduciary obligations to members. As a result, public trust in business is low. This is ...

Alliance Trust Voting Recommendations

PRESS RELEASE 88 17/02/2017 Alliance Trust have convened a General Meeting on the 28th February. It includes 4 resolutions covering the change in investment approach and the proposed share buy back of shares held by Elliott. Our recommendation is that shareholders vote "FOR" all the resolutions. ShareSoc is issuing this press release because we understand that some institutional investor advisory services have expressed some concerns about the proposals. The Alliance Trust Shareholder Action Group which has been supported by ShareSoc is satisfied that the new ...

Response to BEIS Consultation on Green Paper on Corporate Governance

ShareSoc’s response to the public consultation on the Green Paper issued by the BEIS Department on Corporate Governance is present here: Green-Paper-Corporate-Governance-Response

RBS Rejects Democracy

PRESS RELEASE 87 01/02/2017 The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has rejected a requisition to implement a Shareholder Committee. ShareSoc will not permit this unreasonable obstruction of shareholder democracy to stand. It is a basic principle of Company Law that shareholders can requisition resolutions which must be put to a vote of shareholders. If the directors do not like a requisition, then they can advise shareholders to vote against it. But they should not be using tenuous technical excuses to avoid putting ...

FCA’s Mission Needs Substantial Reform, says ShareSoc

PRESS RELEASE 86 23/01/2017 ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) has submitted its response to the Financial Conduct Authority's public consultation on its "Future Mission" with a hard-hitting critique of their activities. We have been concerned for some time about the effectiveness and focus of the FCA and the consultation document tends to reinforce our view on that. It is a somewhat discursive document without a clear focus on the main issues that need to be faced in the future by the FCA, ...

ShareSoc’s response to the public consultation by the FCA on its “Future Mission”

ShareSoc’s response to the public consultation by the FCA on its "Future Mission" is given in this document: FCA-Mission-ShareSoc-Response

RBS Shareholders Demand Shareholder Committee

PRESS RELEASE 85 30/12/2016 A joint press release on behalf of Private Investors from ShareSoc & UKSA Over 100 shareholders in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), supported and coordinated by ShareSoc and UKSA, have requisitioned a resolution to install a new "Shareholder Committee" at the company which will include shareholder representatives so as to improve the corporate governance at the bank. RBS will now have to put this proposal to a vote at their Annual General Meeting (AGM) in May 2017. ShareSoc and UKSA ...

ShareSoc’s response on the reform of Stamp Duty

ShareSoc’s submission to the Office of Tax Simplification on their review of Stamp Duty is in this document: Stamp-Duty-Review

ShareSoc Welcomes Corporate Governance Review

PRESS RELEASE 84 29/11/2016 ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) welcomes the Government's announcement today of a review of Corporate Governance in both public and larger private companies. It is good to see that the Green Paper both discusses the problems of executive pay and the influence of stakeholders other than shareholders on businesses while setting out a number of options for further reform. As regards director pay, the document makes clear that despite more obligations on companies on reporting and voting on ...