ShareSoc News

ShareSoc Advises Investors to Vote Against WPP Plc Remuneration

PRESS RELEASE 79 18/05/2016 ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) is advising its Members to vote against the Remuneration Report resolution at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting of WPP in June 2016. WPP’s share price has performed well in in recent years. However, ShareSoc consider: The remuneration of the CEO Sir Martin Sorrell is far too high (£70 million in 2015 and £191 million since 2009), and particularly so considering: - his potential future equity incentives (his unvested 1.8 million share awards would be worth ...

ShareSoc Appoints New Chairman and Additional Director

PRESS RELEASE 78 16/05/2016 ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) has appointed Mark Northway as Chairman of its Board of Directors. Mark is a senior practitioner in financial markets with wide ranging managerial and governance experience across credit, fixed income, equity and treasury markets. Mark's recent activities have centred on the development of asset management businesses in both listed and private equity space. Mark takes over as Chairman from Stan Grierson who will remain on the board. The board has expressed a vote of thanks to ...

ShareSoc Advises Investors to Vote Against Reckitt Benckiser Remuneration

PRESS RELEASE 77 29/4/2016 ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) is advising its Members to vote against the Remuneration resolutions at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting of Reckitt Benckiser (RB) on 5th May. RB has performed very well in terms of shareholder returns since 2000. However, in ShareSoc’s view: The remuneration of the CEO Rakesh Kapoor is indefensibly high (£23 million in 2015, £56 million since his appointment). This level of remuneration seems even more egregious when viewed against the background of Kapoor’s potential ...

ShareSoc Slams London Stock Exchange over AIM Failures

PRESS RELEASE 76 27/4/2016 At today’s AGM of the LSE Group ShareSoc director, Mark Bentley, accused the Group of failing in its function as operator and regulator of the AIM smaller company market. Representing ShareSoc’s membership, many of whom are experienced investors in AIM quoted companies, Bentley asked: “Why does the LSE not do something about the poor reputation of AIM? This is the result of not just poor performance (or as Claer Barrett said in the FT "20 years of a few winners ...

ShareSoc Advises Investors to Vote Against Anglo American Remuneration Report

PRESS RELEASE 74 14/4/2016 ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) is advising its Members to vote against the Remuneration Report resolution at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting of Anglo American. We consider the pay of the CEO to be too high, and particularly so in a year when the company suffered a loss of $5.6 billion in 2015 and dividends were suspended. The market cap of Anglo has shrunk from £50 billion in 2008 to £8 billion today. However, CEO remuneration has ...

ShareSoc Advises Investors to Vote Against BP Plc Remuneration Report

PRESS RELEASE 73 11/4/2016 ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) is advising its Members to vote against the Remuneration Report resolution at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting of BP. We consider the pay of the CEO to be simply too high, and particularly so in a year when the company suffered a record loss of $6.4 billion in 2015. Even so his pay went up by 20%. Part of the reason for the high pay was the excessively complex remuneration scheme.  Background The ...

ShareSoc’s response to the BIS Non-Financial Reporting consultation

This response was made to the consultation by the BIS Department on The Non-Financial Reporting Directive: Non-Financial-Reporting

BIS Release Paper Showing the Mind-Boggling Complexity of the Intermediated Shareholding Model

PRESS RELEASE 72 19/1/2016 The Government BIS Department have released a Research Paper entitled "Exploring the Intermediated Shareholding Model". It shows in 160 odd pages the existing share registration models in the UK and the underlying systems that support shareholder rights (including voting). In essence it demonstrates perfectly the need for reform. It shows that private investors often do not know what rights they have in nominee accounts or indeed that there are alternative ways of holding shares. Even if they are aware ...

ShareSoc expresses the dismay of shareholders at the administration of Globo

PRESS RELEASE 71 4/11/2015 ShareSoc notes the dismay of many shareholders in Globo Plc at the rapid collapse of the company. It has now gone into administration so the outlook for existing shareholders is very bleak indeed. Globo was another of those controversial AIM stocks which were actively traded by private investors and where the merits of the company were the focus of vigorous debate. However, it would now appear that the company might have been the subject of a major fraud, rather ...

Alliance Trust Shareholder Action Group welcomes changes announced by Alliance

PRESS RELEASE 70 1/10/2015 The Alliance Trust Shareholder Action Group (ATSAG), supported by ShareSoc, welcomes the changes announced by the company today. Our comments are as follows: The separation of investment management operations into a more independent management organisation (Alliance Trust Investments - ATI) so as to make it more accountable is sensible. It is being given a clear mandate to perform and the announcement suggests further changes might be considered, such as outsourcing of investment management, if it does not. The demotion ...

Private Individuals Own More of the Stock Market

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) have published their latest survey of share ownership in UK companies. Historically there has been a long term trend for individuals to own less as a proportion of the overall market. But the latest figures tell a different story. From historic lows of 10% in 2010 and 2012, the figures for 2014 show an increase to 12%. The proportion owned by the “Rest of the World” (which might also include some individuals) remains the highest at ...

ShareSoc Deplores Withdrawal of Personal Crest Membership by Brokers

PRESS RELEASE 68 24/8/2015 Following the takeover of Stocktrade by Alliance Trust Savings (ATS), the latter have decided to withdraw support for Personal Crest Membership from their clients. Clients will either have to transfer into the ATS nominee service, turn their holdings into paper share certificates (a truly archaic form nowadays which are soon to be outlawed by an EU Directive), move to another broker or liquidate their holdings. This continues a recent trend for stockbrokers to terminate the provision of a ...