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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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Share issues – And An Interesting Rule

Spring is in the air, and companies are clearly in a mood to raise cash. A lot of these have been share placings but the reasons given have been...

Employee Directors at Sports Direct

It seems that controversial company Sports Direct (SPD) are likely to become the first UK public company to have a worker on their board. They plan to appoint an elected "Worker's Representative" who will attend and speak at board meetings although they would not formally be appointed as a director. A spokesman for Sports Direct said: "Having explored all options we believe this is the best way to ensure the Workers' Representative is free to champion the interests of all staff. ...

It’s a Budget – But Not As We Know It

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, delivered his Spring budget yesterday. But as most of the big changes have been moved to the Autumn, this was a "steady as you go" statement in essence. However there were some significant changes for private investors. The biggest is that the tax free allowance on dividends has been reduced from £5,000 to £2,000. So if you rely on dividend income, say in retirement, this will cost you substantially more - over £1,000 extra in tax in some ...

Secret Cautions by the FCA

The Financial Times reported this morning that it had obtained information from the FCA on the number of private warnings it had issued over the last 5 years using a Freedom of Information Act request. The answer given was that there had been 39 of them. ShareSoc has complained about this practice in the past, particularly with regards to AIM companies where the LSE has a similar approach. Indeed we complained about the use of private warnings in our submission to the ...

Response to Consultation on Enhancing conduct of business rules for firms providing contract for difference products

ShareSoc responded to the FCA’s consultation on business rules for firms providing contract for difference (CFD) products with this note: CFD-Response

Clamp Down on CFDs – ShareSoc’s Comments

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is proposing to clamp down on CFDs (contracts for difference) and similar financial products such as binary bets. CFDs are complex financial products that...

Government Action on Dormant Accounts

The Government has today reported that as much as £2 billion is sitting idle in dormant accounts such as share trading accounts, ISAs, pensions and insurance products. That includes £715 million alone in investment and wealth management accounts. This is noted by the Independent Dormant Assets Commission set up by the Government which has looked at whether the existing scheme for dormant bank and building society accounts should be extended. Minister for Civil Society, Rob Wilson, suggests that this money could help ...

Alliance Trust Vote – A Victory for Private Investors and ShareSoc

PRESS RELEASE 90 01/03/2017 Yesterday Alliance Trust shareholders voted to support the Board's proposals to change the investment management arrangements and to buy out Elliot. This is surely a major win for private investors and for the stance taken by ShareSoc and the Alliance Trust Shareholder Action Group (ATSAG) which ShareSoc has supported over the last 3 years. ShareSoc wholeheartedly backed the Board's proposals. Alliance Trust can now move forward. But it was a close run thing as proxy advisory services who advise ...

NCC Group – Rob Cotton Departing

In a previous blog post I commented that bearing in mind past events, I doubted that many investors would continue to believe that the long-standing CEO Rob Cotton should continue to lead the company. It would appear the directors agree with me because this morning (1/3/2017) it was announced he was stepping down with immediate effect. Brian Tenner, CFO, will take over as interim CEO and will lead the previously announced strategic review. The share price rose slightly in early trading on ...

Alliance Trust Vote – A Victory for Private Investors and ShareSoc

Today Alliance Trust shareholders voted to support the Board’s proposals to change the investment management arrangements and to buy out Elliot. This is surely a major win for private...
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