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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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Transparency Task Force Attacks FCA and Sophisticated Investor/HNWI Status

This article represents the views of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Following on from the BBC Panorama programme on the Blackmore Bond scandal the Transparency Task Force have launched an attack on the competence of the Financial Conduct Authority – see https://www.transparencytaskforce.org/letters-to-mps-about-blackmore-bond/. It includes a letter you can send to your Member of Parliament asking for some reform. I agree with most of their recommendations on how matters can be improved. One issue I would also raise is that the Panorama ...

Financial Reporting Council Consultation Response: Firm-level Audit Quality Indicators

On 18 August 2022, UKSA and ShareSoc submitted a joint response to the Financial Reporting Council with our comments on their consultation on firm-level Audit Quality Indicators (AQIs). We made the following key points: Definition of audit quality We understand from its various recent publications that the FRC has a definition of high quality audits as audits that: provide investors and other stakeholders with a high-level of assurance that financial statements give a true and fair view; comply with both the spirit and the ...

Panorama Attacks FCA over Mini-Bond Failures

This article represents the views of its author and not necessarily those of Sharesoc. The BBC’s Panorama programme last night (on 16/8/2022) did a good job of pointing out the failure of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to prevent fraud on investors in “mini-bonds”. In this case the focus was on the collapse of Blackmore Bond where 2,000 people lost £46m when the company collapsed. But there have been several other similar cases. Mini-bonds are unregulated investments so should only be sold to ...

Treatt Profit Warning

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. It has been suggested by articles in Investors Chronicle that now might be the time to venture back into the small cap market after a big fall in the share prices of such companies in the last year (the FTSE-AIM index is down by 27%). But investors in Treatt (TET) might not agree. After a profit warning this morning (15th August 2022) the share price ...

Gore Street Energy Fund Dividend Waiver and Directors’ Jobs

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. At the forthcoming Annual General Meeting of Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (GSF) in addition to the usual resolutions shareholders are asked to approve a whitewash of the illegal past payments of dividends (resolution 15). This regularly happens when a company fails to file a statement of distributable reserves at Companies House showing it has sufficient reserves to cover the dividend. It seems to happen ...

Representing, Lobbying and Campaigning – Progress Update 01 August 2022

Executive Summary We have focussed our resources mainly on the Woodford campaign, best practice guidance for AGMs, nominee accounts and pre-emption rights; and maintaining good relationships with the FCA, FRC, BEIS and Treasury. Activities relating to ShareSoc’s shortly to be launched Investing Basics Course have consumed much of our available resource and limited what can be done on campaigns. Nevertheless, we have made much progress. Since our last update of 4 April 2022 we have worked on: Consultation responses and government lobbying  ...

Austin Review of Capital Raising and Dematerialisation

This article represents the views of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. It’s the mid-summer doldrums in the stock market and with investors having more time on their hands, what better time to issue a 265 page document entitled “UK Secondary Capital Raising Review” (see link below). This document covers a number of very important issues to investors after a review by Mark Austin as Chair of a committee that has looked at the way the UK stock market operates ...

ShareSoc/UKSA Joint response to IFRS Foundation International Sustainability Standards Board Consultation

In a joint UKSA/ShareSoc response on 29 July 2022, we said We support the creation of the International Sustainability Standards Board and wish to see it succeed in its mission of developing high-quality global standards for sustainability reporting by companies, which should lead to mitigate against the confusion of the complex web of sustainability standards that currently exists. In order to succeed as global standards, the IFRS Sustainability Standards need to be adopted by the local authorities of countries and regions ...

Prospectus Publishers off the Hook

This article represents the views of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. The Government has published how it proposes to reform the Prospectus Regime. Among the welcome changes are the ability to omit a prospectus when shares are being issued to those who already hold equity securities in the offering company, subject to certain conditions, including that the offer is made pro-rata to a person's existing holding. The need for a prospectus introduced a costly barrier to the issue of shares ...

ShareSoc Woodford Campaign Webinar 19th July – Report

  We received very strongly positive feedback from the 832 registrants to this webinar. A recording of the webinar is available here. The Missing 90% The webinar highlighted the Enigma of the missing 90% of claimants. We think up to 270,000 investors have yet to claim and we plan to issue a press release highlighting this and some of the points below: Nearly 300,000 investors lost money in the Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF)and now have an opportunity to claim compensation, but so far ...
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