ShareSoc

LEADERS AND LAGGARDS

This page lists “leader” awards that ShareSoc considers companies have earned by exemplifying good practice in corporate governance and individual shareholder engagement; and “laggard” awards for those who’s behaviour falls short and we want to call out for poor practice.

Examples of good practice are responding to shareholder requests and concerns; good engagement with individual shareholders, as well as with analysts and institutions; good remuneration practices.

Examples of poor practice are holding general meetings at times and locations that make it difficult for many shareholders to attend; presenting exclusively to analysts and institutions and not offering the same opportunities to engage with individual shareholders; excessive executive remuneration.

Please contact us if you would like to nominate a company for a “leader” or “laggards” award.

ShareSoc has formed its views of these companies at the time recorded and using member recommendations and publicly available information. Companies are commended or criticised for the behaviour described. ShareSoc does not claim that the company is a leader or laggard in other aspects of its operations or that its behaviour is the best or worst example available. We describe it as “a” leader/laggard not “the” leader/laggard. If you feel that this assessment is based on inaccurate information at the time of writing or should be reconsidered subsequently, please contact us with further details.

Leaders

LeaderL&G AGM Directors not afraid of shareholders

    Legal & General’s directors are a beacon of hope and hopefully a bellwether for others. L&G is facilitating shareholder engagement in person and on line. This is...

LeaderPress Release – Baillie Gifford partners with ShareSoc to back individual investors

Baillie Gifford is joining ShareSoc’s Corporate Supporter Scheme, underlining the importance it places on individual investors. Baillie Gifford is an independent global asset manager, headquartered in Edinburgh. With £197bn of assets under management, of which £22bn sits within its popular range of 12 investment trusts. These trusts attract a large individual investor base. ShareSoc is the leading not-for-profit organisation dedicated to representing and supporting UK individual investors. It is a fervent campaigner for fair treatment of individual investors with a heavy focus on ...

LeaderLaw Debenture encouraging increased AGM attendance

Shareholders are encouraged to invite a guest so they can experience an AGM Law Debenture Corporation (LWDB) will hold its AGM on 11th April at the Peel Hunt offices in London. ShareSoc is pleased to see that not only is Law Debenture holding a hybrid AGM, allowing in-person or online attendance, but they are also encouraging shareholders to invite a guest, to allow them to experience what an AGM is like. A great initiative, which is part of Law Debenture's financial education ...

LeaderPress Release – ShareSoc & Edison join forces

Edison and ShareSoc join forces to improve access to investment information Investor Relations expert Edison has joined forces with ShareSoc, the UK’s premier membership organisation for individual investors to improve access to listed company information via innovative delivery channels. ShareSoc has been a fervent campaigner for improved individual investor access to information and research on listed companies, to facilitate more informed investment decisions, to exercise shareholders’ rights and to promote stewardship at the individual shareholder level. Edison is a leading provider of Research and ...

LeaderITV Offers Access to All Investors on Results Call

Kudos to ITV plc for making this morning's results call fully accessible to all investors. They did this by 1) making their results presentation available on their website; 2) offering a Zoom webinar at 9am to all investors in which participants could ask questions live, orally. I didn't try to ask any questions myself so cannot confirm whether individual investors questions would have been taken in the same manner as the many analyst questions. Everyone was able to use the Zoom "raise ...

Laggards

Laggard Press Release – ShareSoc Warns of Serious Governance Issues in Saba Capital’s Proposals

ShareSoc, the UK’s premier organisation for individual investors, has serious concerns about the governance risks posed by Saba’s proposals, which seek to replace independent boards with its own non-independent representatives in all 7 trusts, award itself the investment management mandates, combine the trusts into a larger vehicle and use that vehicle to acquire further trusts at a discount. ShareSoc acknowledges performance concerns raised by Saba Capital Management against some, but not all, of the seven investment trusts targeted by Saba. However, ShareSoc notes ...

Laggard Press Release 125: Defective Legislation Thwarts Europa Oil Shareholders

ShareSoc was recently approached by one of its members for assistance in the case of Europa Oil. Dr Erika Syba and others, who collectively own more than 5% of Europa’s shares, sought to requisition a general meeting of the company. The Companies Act stipulates that members of a company collectively owning more than 5% of its shares are entitled to requisition general meetings. Unfortunately, however, Erika’s shares are held in nominee accounts, like the vast majority of individual shareholders’ shares. Indeed, shares held ...

Laggard AGM voting farce at Go-Ahead Group

Discovery of a voting error is incredibly rare. I imagine that the fund managers who submitted the dissenting votes were on the lookout and saw something odd. Go-Ahead announced on 19 Jan 2022 that  its registrar, Equiniti,  have discovered an error in the collection of certain proxy votes submitted in relation to the resolutions put to shareholders at the Annual General Meeting ("AGM") held on 21 December 2021. Had these votes been included in the vote count, Resolution 4 to re-elect Adrian ...

Laggard DotDigital: how not to run an AGM

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I have been a shareholder of DotDigital for 8 years now and I was appalled by the manner in which the virtual AGM that I have just attended was conducted. Shareholders were advised that in person attendance would not be possible, so a virtual AGM would be provided via the Investor-Meet-Company (IMC) platform. I duly completed the necessary formalities and looked forward to asking my questions ...

Laggard Unanswered Questions at Eleco

I received an unhelpful response to a question today (19th May) from Eleco (ELCO). I have been a shareholder for some time in this construction software company. The company announced on the 26th of April that it had received a requisition notice that covered resolutions to reappoint two directors, that all directors stand for re-election at future AGMs and that the remuneration committee report be approved. It was certainly unusual that such resolutions were not on the AGM agenda on the 6th ...