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Real Good Food – an example of poor AIM corporate governance

Chris Spencer-Phillips, a ShareSoc Director, attended the AGM of Real Good Food last week. This is typical of many AIM companies in that it has very poor corporate governance. They have an Executive Chairman, who refused to answer the questions from a shareholder at the meeting. In addition they have pay which is wildly out of line with the profitability and general size of the company. That includes £798k (including consultancy fees) to the Chairman, plus share options; and one of ...

Lloyds Bank stake sale

The Government is selling 6% of the shares it holds in Lloyds Banking Group at about 75p via a placing. That is marginally more than the shares cost them when it bailed out the company after the disastrous takeover of HBOS, which many shareholders still feel very disgruntled about. If the Government is selling, should private investors now be looking to buy? After all the shares have doubled in price in the last year, well outpacing most other UK banking stocks.  But ...

Royal Mail flotation – first thoughts

Some sketchy information on the prospective flotation of Royal Mail has been released. You can obtain it here: www.gov.uk/royalmailshares and register your interest. Note that you don’t have to do so via a stockbroker but can purchase the shares directly, which may be preferable. Here are some initial comments and what to look out for when you read the prospectus in due course (which all investors should do before investing): First it’s worth pointing out that they are privatising Royal Mail and Parcelforce, ...

Transparency and Trust – Consultation Response Submitted

ShareSoc is submitting a response to the BIS Discussion Paper on “Transparency & Trust” which can be read here:  www.sharesoc.org/Transparency_&_Trust_ShareSoc_Response.pdf . This wide ranging consultation is on a number of proposals to tackle many problems in the modern corporate scene, with a particular focus on tax avoidance and money laundering. Knowing who controls and owns companies is one of the concerns, but it also aims to tackle incompetent and fraudulent directors. A summary of the key points ShareSoc made in our ...

The Vodafone deal – another reason to dislike nominee accounts

Vodafone shareholders will no doubt be aware that the deal recently announced regarding the company’s stake in Verizon Wireless will result in shareholders receiving not just cash, but also some Verizon shares. Verizon is of course a US listed company. Now many retail shareholders may not wish to hold shares in a US listed company, so they might want to sell their Verizon shares. The company has said that they will provide a dealing facility to enable holders of less than 50,000 ...