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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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Brexit, Industrial Strategy and Productivity

What next now that we are committed to Brexit? Well first we need an "industrial strategy" to help us develop a new place in the world and possibly to pay for the up to £60 billion that might be demanded by the EU (as settlement for outstanding commitments if you believe that - yes divorce can be expensive). Now it just so happens that the Government has just published a Green Paper entitled "Building our Industrial Strategy" on that topic which ...

RBS Rejects Democracy

PRESS RELEASE 87 01/02/2017 The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has rejected a requisition to implement a Shareholder Committee. ShareSoc will not permit this unreasonable obstruction of shareholder democracy to stand. It is a basic principle of Company Law that shareholders can requisition resolutions which must be put to a vote of shareholders. If the directors do not like a requisition, then they can advise shareholders to vote against it. But they should not be using tenuous technical excuses to avoid putting ...

RBS Rejects Democracy

ShareSoc has today issued the following press release: The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has rejected a requisition to implement a Shareholder Committee. ShareSoc will not permit this unreasonable...

Obtaining Information on Frauds

One of the things that investors find frustrating is the failure of the regulatory authorities (FCA, SFO, the Police, LSE) to obtain information on the progress or results of investigations into the affairs of companies. For example, if a company and its shareholders are the clear victims of a fraud, often involving false accounting such as in Globo not so long ago and at BT only recently, then obtaining information about the matter is exceedingly difficult. If the company goes into Administration, ...

Alliance Trust Shareholder Forum

Alliance Trust Shareholder Forum Yesterday (25/1/2017) Alliance Trust Plc (ATS) held the first of three meetings for shareholders to explain the outcome of the "strategic review" undertaken by the board of directors and the future investment management arrangements. This first meeting was in London and attended by a couple of hundred shareholders many of whom posed good questions. More on the questions and answers below, but first let me give you some impression of the mood of the audience and an overview of ...

BT Hit By False Accounts

The share price of BT Plc (BT.A) fell by over 20% yesterday after reporting that it would have to write off £530 million in its accounts as a result of "improper accounting practices" in its Italian subsidiary. That included "improper sales, purchase, factoring and leasing transactions" according to the announcement by the company. BT's CFO Simon Lowth commented that including borrowing against receivables to pay debts, improper sale and leaseback transactions and shifting of operating expenses into capital budgets. The company's ...

Brexit Decision by Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has decided to reject the Government’s appeal which means they cannot invoke Article 50 to leave the EU without an Act of Parliament. Will that make...

Paddy Power Betfair – Same Excuses as William Hill

Bookmaker Paddy Power Betfair (PPB) came up with similar excuses for middling results as did William Hill recently on which I wrote a previous blog post (see https://www.sharesoc.org/blog/company-news/how-bookmakers-lose-money-william-hill/ )....

FCA’s Mission Needs Substantial Reform, says ShareSoc

PRESS RELEASE 86 23/01/2017 ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) has submitted its response to the Financial Conduct Authority's public consultation on its "Future Mission" with a hard-hitting critique of their activities. We have been concerned for some time about the effectiveness and focus of the FCA and the consultation document tends to reinforce our view on that. It is a somewhat discursive document without a clear focus on the main issues that need to be faced in the future by the FCA, ...
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