Company News

Rensburg AIM VCT Wind-up covered in the FT

There was an interesting article in the FTMoney edition yesterday (6/6/2015) on the proposed wind up of Rensburg AIM VCT Plc. The board of directors are pushing ahead with this proposal and a General Meeting to approve it is scheduled with the AGM on the 22nd July. The FT article by Adam Palin points out that anyone who claimed capital gains roll-over relief on their original investment in the VCT may not wish to support the wind-up. It quotes me (as a ...

Issuing More Shares in Investment Trusts – Finsbury Gr. & Inc. et al

Now that many investment trusts trade at a premium to their net assets value, it has become commonplace for them to issue more shares so as to "meet demand" as they tend to say. The latest example of this is at Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc (FGT) which is one of the better performing trusts. Other examples of those who do it regularly are City of London Investment Trust and City Merchants High Yield Trust. In the case of  Finsbury they ...

PLUS500 – the Last Word (Hopefully)

I have been meaning to write something on Plus500, an Israeli based provider of CFD trading, for some time. This may be the last opportunity. It is listed on AIM and was discussed at the last ShareSoc Masterclass in Peterborough, with different opinions on it from panel members. Today (1/6/2015) it has become the subject of an agreed cash offer from Playtech at 400p per share, which surely investors in the company will accept. They may be happy to get out ...

Enormous Costs of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Legal Action

There was an interesting article by Geoff Ho in the Sunday Express yesterday (31/5/2015) on the law suit being pursued by shareholders against RBS. He reports that the RBoS Shareholders Action Group was presented with a bill for £1.2 million by its former solicitors Bird & Bird and a demand for "prompt payment" after they changed lawyers to Fladgate following concerns over costs and communication. Indeed the original demand was even higher but was subsequently reduced.  Fladgate are working on a ...

Custodian Reit – It always pays to ask

A note from Mark Bentley: I have been a shareholder in the Custodian REIT (AIM:CREI) since its original flotation in March 2014. It has “done what it says on the tin”, investing in numerous small sized, high yielding commercial properties, to generate income, resulting in an attractive and growing dividend stream for investors. Given the low level of target gearing (25% of NAV), this is a low-risk strategy I find attractive, in this era of negligible interest rates. In January 2015 the ...

Shareholder Friendly Approach from HarbourVest

For once it is good to see a company actively reach out to engage with its shareholders, something ShareSoc applauds and encourages. HarbourVest Global Private Equity (HVPE) is a Guernsey registered investment trust, which invests primarily in global private equity funds-of-funds, managed by an affiliate of Boston based HarbourVest Partners LLC. It is a substantial trust with a market cap. in excess of $1bn. It is currently listed on the specialist funds market of the LSE, but has been planning a move ...

Rensburg AIM VCT Wind Up

Shareholders on the register of Rensburg AIM VCT will have received a letter from Bill Nixon of Maven Capital Partners. Maven are an experienced Venture Capital Fund manager and have experience of taking over the management of existing VCTs as the letter indicates. They are proposing to take over the management of the Rensburg AIM VCT instead of the company winding up as the board of directors has proposed. The company has previously announced that they propose to formally wind up via ...

Alliance Trust Stocktrade Acquisition and Sexism in the City

Yesterday (15/5/2015), Alliance Trust announced the acquisition of the Stocktrade service from Brewin Dolphin which will be integrated into the Alliance Trust Savings (ATS) subsidiary. The acquisition will cost ATS £14 million, and that cost plus an additional £8m of regulatory capital will be funded by the parent company with an injection of equity. This move will anger many shareholders of Alliance Trust who have expressed concerns about the expansion plans for the Alliance Trust subsidiaries, the capital required and the ...

Shareholder Action Group Launched for Alliance Trust

Following the Annual General Meeting of Alliance Trust (ATST) where the Board conceded the appointment of new directors subsequent to the requisition by Elliott Advisors, ShareSoc has been encouraged by a number of private investors to support a shareholder action group to represent their interests. Many investors still have concerns about the strategy of the company and about some aspects of its operations. A shareholder action group has therefore been launched and investors can register their interest on this web page: https://www.sharesoc.org/alliance.html Roger ...

Who are the Election Winners and Losers?

Who are the General Election winners and losers? Well most investors have benefited because the market as a whole has risen today after the election results gave the Conservatives an unexpected victory. Specific sectors that benefited were house builders and utility companies. House builders were generally up at the time of writing this note, with Berkeley Group in particular up 10% - no doubt investors being relieved there would be no mansion tax affecting expensive properties in London.  Utility companies were ...

Shareholder voting, remuneration and BG Group

Manifest, a proxy advisory service, have reported on the voting at Annual General Meetings recently. It was good to read that there was significant opposition to the change to 14 days notice at the General Meetings of both Arm and Anglo-American - 18% at the latter and even higher at the former. This commonly arises where there are substantial overseas holders who find difficulty in getting in their proxy votes in time because of the complexity of the voting chain. But ...

Alliance Trust AGM – Will Dundee cake suffice?

These are some initial impressions of the Alliance Trust AGM in Dundee yesterday - a full report can be found here. It was not quite as exciting as it might have been after the company conceded defeat the previous day and agreed to accept two of the new directors nominated by Elliott, who then withdrew their resolutions. Alliance said it was a "compromise" but most commentators saw it as a tactical withdrawal at best. All Alliance have got is a "non-disparagement" agreement ...