ShareSoc News

New boards elected at Oxford Technology VCTs, after campaign by ShareSoc

PRESS RELEASE 59 New boards elected at Oxford Technology VCTs, after campaign by ShareSoc.  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were well attended as Oxford Technology VCT (OXT) and Oxford Technology 3 VCT (OTT) previously had their VCT status withdrawn by HMRC, although this has now been temporarily "set aside" while an appeal is processed.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 ...

ShareSoc welcomes announcement of changes at the Oxford Technology VCTs

PRESS RELEASE 57 (31/07/2014) The Oxford Technology VCT (OXT) and Oxford Technology 3 VCT (OTT) previously had their VCT status withdrawn by HMRC, although this has now been temporarily "set aside" pending an appeal. 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 VCTs including changes in the directors (see the note dated the 1st July on this web ...

ShareSoc Launches new “Internet for Investors” Course

PRESS RELEASE 56 (19/05/2014) ShareSoc launches its First Educational Offer with a Course entitled “The Internet for Investors” The individual investor community is split. Some individual investors are highly “web-savvy” and benefit greatly from a range of news and information resources that can be used to improve investment performance. Others, however, are stuck in the web “dark ages” and lack the knowledge and confidence to take full advantage of these tools, putting them at a disadvantage. In line with our stated mission to improve ...

ShareSoc launches Group for concerned shareholders in Oxford Technology VCTs

PRESS RELEASE 55 (21/03/2014) The Oxford Technology VCT (OXT) and Oxford Technology 3 VCT (OTT) have announced that HMRC has withdrawn their VCT status. This has been done because one of the Venture Capital Trust rules is that no more than 15% of a fund can be invested in one company. Both these companies have a holding in Scancell, an AIM listed company, and the share price of Scancell rose rapidly so that the rule was inadvertently breached as a result of ...

Nominee system defeats shareholder voting

PRESS RELEASE 54 (30/01/2014) Nominee system defeats shareholder voting 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 ...

ShareSoc’s Response to the Response to Consultation on Fiduciary Duties of Intermediaries

The Law Commission have undertaken a public consultation on the "Fiduciary Duties of Investment Intermediaries". ShareSoc’s response is in this document: Fiduciary_Duties

Hargreaves Lansdown doubles charges for some investors

PRESS RELEASE 53 (17/01/2014) On the 15th January Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) announced new charges on its investment platform. The changes are no doubt provoked by the new rules whereby funds can no longer pass part of their charges back to HL. But the changes will mean that the annual charges paid by some investors will double. The reason why charges might double is that in future investment trust holdings will not be treated as being direct share investments, even though they are the ...

Hargreaves Lansdown backs down on investment trust charges

PRESS RELEASE 53 (17/01/2014) Hargreaves Lansdown doubles charges for some investors On the 15th January Hargreaves Lansdown (HL) announced new charges on its investment platform. The changes are no doubt provoked by the new rules whereby funds can no longer pass part of their charges back to HL. But the changes will mean that the annual charges paid by some investors will double. The reason why charges might double is that in future investment trust holdings will not be treated as being direct share ...

Collective Engagement – A New “City Club” for Institutions?

PRESS RELEASE 52 (20/12/2013) ShareSoc welcomed many of the proposals contained in the Kay Review, including the third key recommendation that "An investors’ forum should be established to facilitate collective engagement by investors in UK companies". Subsequently a Collective Engagement Working Group was formed to take this proposal forward and it has recently produced a report (see Note below). Unfortunately this report contains a number of major defects in our view and we will be making representations to the Government opposing the structure ...

ShareSoc’s Response to the FCA’s Consultation on Crowdfunding

Proposals to regulate Crowdfunding were the subject of this response to an FCA consultation: Crowdfunding