Company News

Fenner AGM Requisition. Why Is It Not a Good Idea?

Fenner Plc (FENR) are the subject of a requisition of a resolution to appoint another director at their forthcoming Annual General Meeting on 11th January. ShareSoc is particularly interested in requisitioned resolutions at present because we are trying to get one added to the Royal Bank of Scotland AGM (see www.sharesoc.org/campaigns/rbs/). In the case of Fenner, activist Swiss investor Teleios Capital Partners have put forward the requisition, with the support of a number of other investors. Teleios hold over 5% and have ...

IDOX and Prejudicial Placings

One of the things that private investors hate is placings made by companies to raise money in which they cannot participate. In other words, the issuance of shares that dilutes your interest in the company when it is not a rights issue and there is no "open offer" alongside. Sometimes those placings are done at a price which is a considerable discount to the open market share price, thus enabling institutional investors to pick up shares at a big discount to ...

Alliance Trust Strategic Review Announcement

The following note has been issued by ATSAG following the announcement this morning from Alliance Trust: Alliance Trust Shareholder Action Group (ATSAG) Update No. 13 – Outcome of Strategic...

International Biotechnology Trust – Odd Performance Fee

International Biotechnology Trust (IBT) is an investment trust focussed on the sector suggested by its name. I attended the Annual General Meeting yesterday (13/12/2016) in the City of London...

Paysafe Attacked by Shorters

Electronic payment company Paysafe (PAYS) has come under attack today by a blogging company named Spotlight Research. The share price fell by as much as 38% during the day and finished 18% down at 305p. Spotlight admit they may be shorting the shares. The 50+ page document they have published makes various allegations but the key ones are that Paysafe have been enabling illegal gambling and money laundering, particularly in China, India and other Far East countries. They allege a lot of ...

Problems at Alliance Trust Savings

An article in FTAdviser has reported a number of problems with the new technology platform being implemented by Alliance Trust Savings (ATS). They decided a couple of years ago to upgrade to a new software platform so as to improve the service to clients, but there have clearly been some major teething troubles. For example, one IFA said that the first and only time she put a client on the new platform had been a disaster. She said "the platform had been ...

The Battle for Dee Valley – Shareholders Need to Vote

A bidding war for smallish water company Dee Valley Group (DVW) broke out some weeks ago. The two bidders are Ancala (Ancala Formia Ltd) and Severn Trent Water Ltd. Although the Ancala bid was initially recommended by Dee Valley, the later Severn Trent offer is significantly higher so the recommendation was changed to support them. However, one problem is that Dee Valley has a high proportion of retail shareholders, many of whom hold their shares in nominee accounts, and it is necessary ...

RBS Settlement Announced – But Why Has the FCA Done Nothing?

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) have announced a settlement of the litigation over the rights issue in 2008 with three out of the five investor groups who were pursuing the company. They have reserved £800 million to settle all the claims and are continuing to negotiate with the remaining litigants. But private investors may be reluctant to settle because of the high legal costs that will erode any settlement, the low value of the settlement (the claims were originally estimated ...

Berkeley Group Interims, and Pay

House builder Berkeley Group issued their Interim Results this morning (2/12/2016). It was generally positive about the future so the share price has perked up somewhat today. But the...

Inconvenient AGM Times – Proactis

Yet another example of an inconvenient date/time for an AGM is Proactis Holdings (PHD) - see previous blog posts covering the same issue at Dunelm and DX Group. Proactis have called their Annual General Meeting for 9.30 am on the 19th December in Wetherby (Yorkshire). That is a Monday morning of the week before Christmas to begin with, and the time makes it very difficult for most investors to make it without staying overnight. Wetherby may be an acceptable location, but a time ...

No More Dividend Cheques From Aviva

It has been brought to my attention that insurance company Aviva (AV.) are to stop paying dividends via cheque. Unless shareholders supply bank account information and accept direct payments into them, they will not get paid their dividends in future. This particularly affects those shareholders who hold their shares in certificated form or as personal crest members where payment by cheque is the default method. Another company that introduced this rule a year or two back was Vodafone, despite the objections of ...

Inconvenient AGM Times – DX Group

I posted only recently about the inconvenient time and location of the AGM of Dunelm. Another example is DX Group (DX.) who scheduled their AGM for 8.30 am in Iver, Bucks on the 6th December. But after representations from investors they have moved it to 10.30 am. It seems that they did not get many investors turn up for the AGM last year. But bearing in mind the share price collapse over the past year, more are expected this year. It is good ...