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ShareSoc Blog

This blog gives you the latest topical news plus some informal comments on them from ShareSoc’s directors and other contributors. These are the personal comments of the authors and not necessarily the considered views of ShareSoc. The writers may hold shares in the companies mentioned. You can add your own comments on the blog posts, but note that ShareSoc reserves the right to remove or edit comments where they are inappropriate or defamatory.

There is more news given in the News page of our web site and more analysis of news is provided in our monthly newsletter for members – see the Newsletters page.

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It’s Getting More Difficult to Vote

It’s certainly getting more difficult to vote of late, and I am not talking about voting at General Elections but just for resolutions at the General Meetings of companies we own. This seems to be a particular problem with Capita Registrars. Here’s some examples: Whitbread: As a personal crest member, I am on the register and expect to be sent an annual report and proxy voting form (and at least the latter on paper). But no longer it seems. Whitbread ...

Organisations Urge Government To Foster Retail Investments In Capital Markets

Press Release 94 - SHARESOC AND UKSA, ALONG WITH BETTER FINANCE, WELCOMES THE CAPITAL MARKETS UNION MID-TERM REVIEW REPORT, AND - URGE THE UK GOVERNMENT TO MAKE PROGRESS ON FOSTERING RETAIL INVESTMENT IN CAPITAL MARKETS Cliff Weight, Director of ShareSoc commented, "The UK Government needs to ensure that, after BREXIT, we continue to look after the rights of individual investors." There is an abundance of investable private capital in the UK and Europe, with households desperately looking for positive real returns on their long-term savings ...

RBS payout may trigger other group litigations

RBS £200m payout could lead to similar group litigation brought by small investors in other companies. You may recall that investors alleged that RBS had misled them over the...

RBS case shows why trust must be rebuilt in business

Letter in the FT from ShareSoc Director Cliff Weight on why the SFO, CPS and/or BEIS should be given more resources and told to pursue problem cases much more...

Potential Claim vs Media Corporation

ShareSoc member Steven Egan is leading a campaign seeking redress against the former Media Corporation plc and its directors. Details of that campaign can be found here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/defrauded-purple-lounge-registered-customers/ Please note...

Fusionex – Another AIM Company Disappears into the Night

In an announcement late Friday afternoon, after market close and just before the long weekend, AIM listed Fusionex announced that it will seek to delist from the AIM market. It’s not clear why this is good for private investors, the company is profitable and has no need to raise funds. The RNS says that a meeting will take place in Malaysia on 15 June to vote on the matter, and that all of the Directors representing 41.93% of shares are in ...

Changes to ShareSoc’s Board

In recent months your chairman has found it increasingly difficult to reconcile the views of the ShareSoc board in certain areas of style and presentation, and this has started...

RBS Potential Settlement: Where’s the Justice?

It seems that the major players in the RBS Action Group have accepted the latest RBS offer. See http://files.constantcontact.com/2fe662f5101/de78446f-b327-4d5e-9eee-5fcd584c7e8c.pdf This has, in effect, enabled RBS to bully the small individual shareholders into also accepting the settlement. I say “bully” because RBS are threatening anyone who pursues the case to risk having costs awarded against them. So now the case will be settled. No-one will be found guilty. RBS will pay out £800 million (of shareholders’ money) to a group of its shareholders without ...

ShareSoc Foresight 4 Campaign update 26 May 2017

We recommend (with reservations) that shareholders vote in favour of the resolutions to merge Foresight 3 & 4 and to raise additional funds of £50 million, and possibly up...

A tale of three AGMs

by Cliff Weight Last week I went to 3 AGMs. Aviva on Wednesday, 10 May in London and then Lloyds in the morning of the 11th and RBS in the afternoon, both in Edinburgh. Aviva was very well attended with about 600 people in the Queen Elizabeth Centre. There were plenty of displays of the Aviva products, lots of staff to explain them and deal with any customer issues or complaints. There were also stands explaining the business (noticeable by its absence was ...
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