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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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Former Redcentric Directors Jailed

After a 3 month trial, verdicts have been reached in the prosecution of former Redcentric directors by the FCA. The FCA announced that the former Redcentric CFO had been sentenced to 5½ years imprisonment for two offences of making false and misleading statements to the market, and three offences of false accounting. In addition, the former Finance Director who had pled guilty was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment on charges of making false statements and false accounting. These former directors will also ...

Share Power Book Review

Book Review by ShareSoc Director Cliff Weight Brilliant, insightful, fun and easy to read short book on how ordinary people can change the way that capitalism works. Merryn Somerset Webb’s Share Power is a page turner. I recommend all ShareSoc members buy a copy and read its 145 pages. Should companies care about climate change? Should they be vanquishing the gender pay gap? Should they be advancing human rights in their supply chains? With 11 million people owning shares directly or indirectly, it’s ...

ShareSoc response to FRC Endorsement Board – Draft Endorsement Criteria Assessment: IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts

In a joint UKSA/ShareSoc response on 4 Feb 2022, we said we do not agree with your overall tentative conclusion that IFRS 17 meets the criteria of understandability, relevance, reliability and comparability required of the financial information needed for making economic decisions and assessing the stewardship of management. The consultation paper can be read here: https://assets-eu-01.kc-usercontent.com/99102f2b-dbd8-0186-f681-303b06237bb2/2994263f-e03c-45d4-9fcd-933f0b19cb56/UKEB%20IFRS%2017%20DECA.pdf Our full response can be read here UKEB-Invitation-to-Comment-IFRS-17-ECA-UKSA-ShareSoc-response by Cliff Weight, Policy Director, ShareSoc 

Better Finance finds that commission-based distribution models cost individual investors up to 15% of their investments in sales commissions

ShareSoc is a member of BETTER FINANCE, who represent c. 28 European shareholder organisations. Better Finance have just issued a report that finds that commission-based distribution models cost individual investors up to 15% of their investments in sales commissions and generate conflicts of interest which severely hurt their performance. Click here to read the full press release and access the full report.

ShareSoc response to FCA Consultation CP21/36: A New Consumer Duty

In a detailed 12 page response to the FCA Consultation, ShareSoc made the following key points: We welcome consultation paper CP21/36 and its proposed new Consumer Duty, which we believe will set clearer and higher standards. We believe that the proposal should be labelled as a Duty of Care. We do not understand why the FCA has not done this. We also believe it is not clear whether the FCA’s central proposal is intended to create a duty of care. We ...

ShareSoc Informer #119 – Out now!

We're delighted to present our first ShareSoc Informer issue for 2022.   We lead with an introduction to our new Chair, Sheryl Cuisia, who took over the role from Mark Northway at the beginning of the year and who is spearheading an executive-led transformation process to prepare ShareSoc for its next phase of development.   Faith Glasgow looks at the rising spectre of inflation and examines the tools available to closed-end funds for combatting rising consumer prices.     The Informer is a great way to catch up with what ShareSoc has ...

Trouble Brewing at Hargreave Hale AIM VCT?

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I have been a shareholder in Hargreave Hale AIM VCT (HHV) for quite some time and have been happy with the tax free dividend stream they have sent me over the years. As usual, I recently received the AGM proxy form for the 3rd February AGM and was reviewing the annual report when something caught my attention. An investee company called Honest Brew (HB), which ...

Paul Myners Obituary and BHP Unification Meetings

The views expressed in this article are those of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. Lord Myners has died at the age of 73. He had a big hand in the rescue of the banks in the financial crisis of 2008 as a Treasury Minister in the Labour Government after becoming the socialists’ favourite capitalist. He was also responsible for the Myners Report into institutional investment which had some influence on corporate governance and institutional stewardship in the UK. I met ...

Laggard AGM voting farce at Go-Ahead Group

Discovery of a voting error is incredibly rare. I imagine that the fund managers who submitted the dissenting votes were on the lookout and saw something odd. Go-Ahead announced on 19 Jan 2022 that  its registrar, Equiniti,  have discovered an error in the collection of certain proxy votes submitted in relation to the resolutions put to shareholders at the Annual General Meeting ("AGM") held on 21 December 2021. Had these votes been included in the vote count, Resolution 4 to re-elect Adrian ...

Enabling investment in productive finance – Consultation Response

On 17 January 2022, ShareSoc and UKSA submitted a joint response to the Department for Work & Pensions November 2021 consultation "Enabling investment in productive finance - proposals to remove performance-based fees from the charge cap" where we made these points: We would like to register our deep concern about the suggestions in this consultation paper. We are seriously concerned that the DWP has failed to think these proposals through. The Ministerial Foreword says, for example, “In the last few months, the government, alongside ...
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