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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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ShareSoc Highlights Investor Concerns to Select Committee

ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) was asked to give evidence to the Business, Energy, Innovation and Skills (BEIS) Select Committee Inquiry on Corporate Governance. Cliff Weight represented ShareSoc at the inquiry on the 23rd November. You can watch the session in which he appears by clicking on this link (Cliff appears in the second half of the session): http://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/053aad45-73c6-43e4-9d36-fd43c3850b60 Here is a summary of some of the points he and other witnesses made: Cliff indicated that individual shareholders are under-represented: The views of ...

Chancellors Autumn Statement – How Does It Affect Investors?

The Chancellors Autumn Statement yesterday was effectively a cold shower for those who might be positive about the economy. Government debt is going to be allowed to rise so...

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 ...

Aero Inventory – Deloittes Fined

There was a brief mention of the latest news on Aero Inventory in the recently issued ShareSoc Informer Newsletter, but here are a few more details. False accounts are a common problem in AIM companies (Aero Inventory and Globo are just two examples apart from the recent case of Redcentric). Let us hope the auditors of Redcentric (PWC) take note of the recent record fine imposed on Deloittes of £4 million in relation to their audit of Aero Inventory, plus £2.3 million ...

Learning from the Experts 2 – Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust

A previous blog post covered how one could learn from experts such as Harry Nimmo at Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust. Another company, but a very different one, I hold is Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (SMT) and I thought this comment in their recently received Interim Report was worthy of note: "Outlook: There is a strong structural asymmetry in equity market returns, given the potential for a successful company to grow to many times its size. This means it is of ...

Pension Protection – It’s Easy

The question of whether to apply to HMRC for “Pension Protection” is something that investors might wish to consider. With the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement coming up on Wednesday (23rd...

FCA Study of Asset Management – Interesting Interim Results

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published an interim report on its Asset Management Market Study. Some of the results are not that surprising, but others are. For example, it reports that around half of retail investors were not aware that they were paying fund charges. Needless to point out perhaps that can be linked to another conclusion. Namely that there is weak price competition. How can investors be expected to compare prices when they are not even aware of the charges? Indeed ...

Rolls-Royce Accounts Adjustments – Were They Prudent?

Rolls-Royce provided a trading update today, and covered the impact of IFRS 15 which is probably a lot more important. IFRS 15 is a new accounting standard concerning revenue recognition which will come into use in 2018. It will have a major impact on the figures reported by Rolls-Royce because of their past recognition of revenue and profits from long term maintenance contracts. For example, Rolls-Royce report that when looking at the 2015 accounts the "Changes result in adverse notional adjustments to ...

Trump Victory – What’s the Impact for Investors?

With Donald Trump being elected President of the USA, what is the impact for investors? Will he create "high anxiety" as the unexpected head of that great democracy in the same way as the Brexit vote has in the UK? In other words, uncertainty about the future which tends to spook markets. But readers should bear in mind that the President has limited powers (much less than a UK Prime Minister). There are numerous checks and balances in the US constitution. Indeed ...
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