Blogs

Latest Blogs

Burford Capital, Goals Soccer Centres, Carillion, and Why Numbers Are Not Important

Post Date: August 7, 2019

To follow on from my previous comments this morning on Burford Capital (BUR), this is a typical “shorting” attack where the shorter (Muddy Waters) and their supporters make a lot of allegations which investors are unable to verify in any useful time frame. I certainly questioned the accounting approach used by Burford and other litigation finance firms as I commented on it back in June, but disentangling the factual accusations in the Muddy Waters dossier from innuendo and comment is not ...

Market Crashes and Burford Capital

Post Date: August 7, 2019

Investors might have been panicked by the recent market falls driven by the US/China trade wars, Brexit and gloomy economic forecasts. As usual, the UK market is led by the US markets. The S&P 500 is down 5% since the 26th July even though there was a slight bounce upwards yesterday. There can be few readers portfolios which have not suffered some impact because there were few stocks that did not fall. Now I am an inveterate trend follower so how did ...

RBS Shareholder Event Tuesday 10 September 2019, 6pm – 8pm in London.

Post Date: August 6, 2019

I am very pleased to report progress at RBS on shareholder engagement with individual investors. The next event will take place on Tuesday 10 September 2019, 6pm – 8pm in London. If you are interested in attending this event please email your full name, postcode and Shareholder Reference Number (if known) to rbseventlondon@computershare.co.uk by Friday 23 August 2019. On the 25 November 2019 RBS are planning a virtual shareholder event. Further information regarding this event and how to participate will be made available soon. I ...

FRC Enforcement of its Rules

Post Date: August 6, 2019

by Cliff Weight, ShareSoc Director Very belatedly, the FRC has substantially increased tough action to tackle poor quality audit. To me, these were the key words which showed that for the last ten years the FRC had dreadfully understaffed this activity - "The Enforcement Division has grown significantly in recent years reflecting the FRC’s investment in what has become recognised as one of the organisation’s key functions. A decade ago the team comprised just six members. By 31 March 2019 it had been expanded to ...

Albion Venture Capital VCT Blog number 2

Post Date: August 2, 2019

Albion want to change the performance fee from the current arrangement (1.9% management fee, plus 8% of returns over a hurdle rate of 5% per annum with a high-water mark) to 20% of returns above a hurdle of RPI +2%p.a., from a new starting point of NAV at 1 April 2019. ShareSoc recommends shareholders vote against this proposal and other resolutions at the AGM on 21 August. 1.9% plus 20% is egregious, particularly when: it represents an increase from historically agreed arrangements and ...