IPOs

City AM, 26 May 2026, Poor investor communication is holding back Britain’s listed companies

Post Date: May 27, 2026

City AM reports that UK-listed companies are facing growing criticism from retail investors over weak communication, limited transparency, and poor access to leadership teams, according to new research from InvestorHub and ShareSoc. The survey suggests that more than half of investors feel company disclosures lack transparency, while many also say financial information is unclear or insufficiently detailed. The article highlights wider concerns about declining trust in UK equities, set against a backdrop of falling numbers of listed companies and subdued IPO ...

REX/Retail Book – Retail access to share offerings

Post Date: February 14, 2023

Shareholder Rights are central to ShareSoc’s campaigning activities. Defending pre-emptive rights and the rights of minority shareholders, and ensuring access for individuals to placings on fair terms are areas where we lobby, represent and campaign for the benefit of ShareSoc members and individual investors as a whole. Primary Bid, in collaboration with the London Stock Exchange, has made huge strides in making IPOs and fund raises more available to retail shareholders. The Treasury is finally putting various initiatives in place following the ...

The Spectator, 09 October 2021, Why stamp duty doesn’t add up

Post Date: October 9, 2021

From the Spectator, The hugely successful Oxford Nanopore float has also brought chuntering from objectors to the exclusion of private investors, all the shares on offer having initially been allocated to institutions: ‘Disgraceful’, says Cliff Weight of the campaign group ShareSoc. Click here to read the article.

Mail on Sunday, 02 October 2021, Private investors shut out as Oxford Nanopore soars on float

Post Date: October 2, 2021

ShareSoc's Cliff Weight says that it's 'disgraceful' that investors are being shut out of successful IPO's. Click here to read the article.

Improve Access for Retail Shareholders

Post Date: March 25, 2021

Give Growing Companies Better Access to Retail Shareholders to Boost the UK Economy ShareSoc News Item by Mike Dennis, Director A recent survey1 of ShareSoc members was undertaken in conjunction with Aquis Stock Exchange (AQSE) and it has revealed that many individual investors do not feel they have good, equal access to growth stocks. Key findings of the survey1 55% of individual investors polled feel they don’t have, or aren’t sure they have, good access to growth companies Over 80% of respondents feel individual ...

Don’t let the governance guard down in IPO razzmatazz

Post Date: February 26, 2021

ShareSoc Member Barry Gamble has contributed this article. Background My recent Financial Times letter “Don’t let the governance guard down in IPO razzmatazz” argued against relaxation of the governance requirements under the listing and AIM rules. Thirty years ago the scandal surrounding the business affairs of publisher Robert Maxwell prompted the Cadbury report. This defined corporate governance as “the system by which companies are directed and controlled.” Numerous other reports, directives, rules, regulations, prescribed checklists and best practice guidance have followed since. This confection, including ...

Retail Investor Participation in IPOs – A Good Thing?

Post Date: February 26, 2021

Shares magazine have reported that the CEOs of major platform operators AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown and Interactive Investor have written to Government Minister Jon Glen asking him to consider the rights of retail investors in IPOs. Long gone are the days when new company listings were advertised in newspapers and retail investors could subscribe, and frequently “stag” the issue to make a quick profit. Nowadays institutional investors are typically offered shares in a placing and retail investors are excluded from participating. The ...

Do Spivvy PE Funds IPO Their Investments at Inflated Prices? – and HM Treasury Consultation UK Listings Review

Post Date: November 24, 2020

The AA 86% share price decline, coming on top of the Saga and Aston Martin makes me wonder if PE firms and others are exploiting those retail investors willing to buy into a fashionable story. I have to admit to losing money on Saga, whose share price is down 90% from its 2016 high. My mother-in-law was a huge fan of Saga and she gave me a present of Saga membership when I was 50, so when they were floated, I and ...

Daily Mail, 24 Nov 2020, Roadside Recovery Firm AA Banks on £218m Private Equity Rescue

Post Date: November 24, 2020

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-8979017/AA-banking-218m-private-equity-rescue.html quotes ShareSoc Director Cliff Weight who questions whether PE funds opportunistically sell their assets at inflated prices: Cliff Weight, director of small shareholders campaign group ShareSoc, said the AA's performance would raise further questions about private equity-backed floats in future. He said: 'In 2014 the private equity firms decided that they were better off selling the AA rather than holding on to it, after loading it up with almost £3bn in debts. It was floated with all the encouragement of the financial services ...

HSS Hire and other IPOs

Post Date: January 27, 2015

I am sometimes accused by my wife and colleagues of being a "wet blanket". In other words immune to the excitement of new ventures or ideas. But when it comes to IPOs that's probably the right frame of mind to have. I shall proceed to throw some cold water over the IPO of HSS Hire which is listing in early February if all goes according to plan - the prospectus for which is now available. Academics Elroy Dimson and Paul Marsh have recently ...

Royal Mail and Myners’ report on other Government sell-offs

Post Date: December 23, 2014

The Government sell-off of a major stake in Royal Mail was controversial in many ways. It proved to be even more so when the placing price of £3.30 was rapidly eclipsed by a market price which rose to as high as £6 although it's been mostly downhill since (at the time of writing it's 420p). The long term holders who were given priority in the share allocation soon turned out to be anything but with 44% of the shares changing hands ...

IPOs

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