ShareSoc News

ShareSoc Requests More Power for Ultimate Investors

Post Date: October 25, 2016

PRESS RELEASE 83 25/10/2016 ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) has today submitted its written evidence to the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee inquiry on corporate governance. In summary: The goal should be to get more power back to the ultimate investors. This can be achieved by: Ensuring that individual shareholders can exercise their rights, even if their shares are held in nominee accounts. ShareSoc, if sufficiently well resourced, can play a role by ensuring that individual shareholders are educated about their rights and ...

ShareSoc Advises Investors to Vote Against Berkeley Remuneration Report

Post Date: August 23, 2016

PRESS RELEASE 82 23/08/2016 ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) is advising its Members to vote against the Remuneration Report resolution at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting of Berkeley Group Holdings Plc. ShareSoc considers: - The 2011 LTIP plan total payouts are likely to be more than £400 million and are excessive. The plan dilutes shareholders by 14%, even though awards were made towards the bottom of the cycle. The dilution should have been half of what was agreed. This is an unnecessary transfer ...

ShareSoc Proposes How the AIM Market Should Be Improved

Post Date: June 7, 2016

PRESS RELEASE 81 07/06/2016 The AIM market run by the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has been criticised by many people for the quality of companies listed on the market and for the way it operates. ShareSoc and our Members think that some reform is necessary. There is no denying that it is possible to invest in successful AIM companies but as any experienced AIM investor knows, doing so consistently and avoiding those that either never establish a profitable business, get delisted, go bust ...

ShareSoc Launches New Director Remuneration Guidelines

Post Date: May 20, 2016

PRESS RELEASE 80 20/05/2016 ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) has published today its new remuneration guidelines. In summary:  FTSE100 CEO pay is too high. It should be less than half of current amounts.  FTSE 100 CEO’s maximum bonus should be 100% of salary (currently 200% is common) and the LTIP maximum normal annual award should be 100% of salary (currently 300% is common).  Remuneration creep needs to be reversed.  Share Options have a role to play in Directors’ remuneration.  ShareSoc has specific guidelines for smaller companies. Small ...

ShareSoc Advises Investors to Vote Against WPP Plc Remuneration

Post Date: May 18, 2016

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

Post Date: May 16, 2016

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

Post Date: April 29, 2016

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

Post Date: April 27, 2016

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

Post Date: April 14, 2016

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

Post Date: April 11, 2016

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

Post Date: March 30, 2016

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

Post Date: January 19, 2016

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 ...

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