Blogs

Latest Blogs

FRC review and the future of audit: break up or shape up?

Post Date: May 17, 2018

Sir John Kingman has been appointed to undertake a thorough review of the FRC. ShareSoc and UKSA will be making a submission to this. The FT on 16 May had a front page article on this headed Carillion’s demise spurs call for action against Big Four. MPs’ report on collapse asks for possible break-up of ‘cosy’ auditors by Gill Plimmer. The key points were Outsourcer’s fate exposed 'systemic flaws' in corporate Britain and its ‘toothless’ and 'feeble' regulators, say Commons committees Damning ...

Persimmon 2018 AGM Voting Recommendations

Post Date: April 22, 2018

We (Peter Parry of UKSA and I) met the interim Chairman Nigel Mills and the Rem Com Chair Marion Sears on 19 April. This was part of the Persimmon charm offensive to try and minimise the negative impact of the 2012 LTIP which is due to pay out massively. Nigel and Marion were not responsible for the 2012 LTIP. That was done before they joined Persimmon. Those responsible have resigned and Nigel and Marion are trying to make the best of an ...

It is this weekend – ShareSoc will be at the UK’s biggest shares show UK Investor on April 21 – will you? Free tickets on offer

Post Date: April 17, 2018

This Saturday 21st April ShareSoc will be mixing with more than 3,000 serious investors at the UK Investor Show. And we have some of the last available tickets to hand out today, for free, to ShareSoc members Sharesoc will be organising one of 133 stands at the country's largest one day event for those interested in shares. The other stands will be manned by AIM and Standard List companies and the CEOs of most of them will also be doing 20 minute ...

Integrity and independence in the judiciary and the financial services industry: a comparative study

Post Date: April 2, 2018

My thanks go to ShareSoc member Tony Johnson - for bringing to my attention, a recent lecture given to the Banking Standards Board by Sir Geoffrey Vos, Chancellor of the High Court of England and Wales. In the lecture, Sir Geoffrey considers the present state of integrity of our financial institutions and our judiciary. For those with plenty of time, you can read the full script of his lecture here - https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/chc-speech-banking-standards-board-lecture.pdf For those with less time, I summarise below : Sir Geoffrey is well-qualified ...

GKN – Melrose and the Sage of Omaha

Post Date: March 29, 2018

A number of ShareSoc members have asked the ShareSoc Board for their recommendations for the GKN offer from Melrose. ShareSoc is not FCA registered and cannot give advice - and neither can I. Why have fund managers, who should be talking a long-term view, sold 25% of GKN to short-term opportunists? Why are 11% of Melrose shares shorted? Why has the Melrose share price not dropped hugely in the face of this short selling? The final offer is for 81p plus 1.69 Melrose ...