Sirius Update #2 28 Jan 2020

As of today, 28 Jan,  274 Sirius shareholders representing at least 150m shares have joined the ShareSoc Sirius Shareholder Group (SSSG) and more are joining at a rapid rate. These figures do not include a backlog of registrations still to process. The more members we have, the more people will have to listen to us.

We are merging Paul Anscombe’s data into ShareSoc’s database thus ensuring that the data is held securely and confidentially. This work is currently underway. I would like to give many thanks to Paul for the work he has done.

We have successfully obtained a copy of the shareholder register. My analysis indicates there are around 7,000 “members”. It is widely reported there are 85,000 shareholders which means the others (c90%) must be holding via nominee. My analysis of the register also suggests that individual investors hold around 50% of Sirius’s shares. This is exceptionally high and hence why the views of  individual investors are so pertinent. Hargreaves Lansdown Nominees via its customers (various words are used for these including shareholders, end investors, beneficial owners and those with interests in shares) own 18.4% of Sirius’ shares. It will be important how they communicate to these “shareholders”. I have emailed Danny Cox, Head of Communications at Hargreaves Lansdown asking to meet to discuss this. If anyone has other senior level contacts at HL please could they let me know.

This is a classic illustration of why our shareholder rights campaign is so important. With no public record of whose shares HL’s nominees actually represent neither we, nor the court which will adjudicate on the Scheme of Arrangement can know how many individual shareholders HL represents. Moreover, we have no direct way of communicating with those shareholders and explaining and discussing the SSSG’s aims. We urge you to also support our shareholder rights campaign.

The vast majority of members of the SSSG should now have received a welcome email setting out our aims (except for the most recent joiners who will receive one shortly).

Many SSSG members have blogged their feedback on our letter to the Sirius Board of Directors requesting a meeting and further information. The feedback has been hugely positive. Thank you. To see the 5 page letter go to the ShareSoc Sirius Forum page https://www.sharesoc.org/forums/topic/letter-requesting-disclosure/ – sorry, but you will have to be or join as a FULL ShareSoc member to see this.

All Sirius shareholders are encouraged to join the SSSG by going here – https://www.sharesoc.org/campaigns/sirius/
and to join ShareSoc as a full member https://www.sharesoc.org/membership/full-membership/

Cliff Weight, ShareSoc Director and SSSG Committee member

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