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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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Restoring Trust in Audit and Corporate Governance

As it’s Friday afternoon with not much happening, and I have completed my latest complaint about the time it’s taking to complete a SIPP platform transfer, I decided to have a look at the public consultation on “Restoring Trust in Audit and Corporate Governance” from the BEIS Department. This is a quite horrendous consultation on the Government’s proposals to improve audit standards and director behaviour as foretold in the Kingman and Brydon reviews, with proposals for a new regulatory body (ARGA). That’s ...

OCDO : OCADO – Company Information and Vote Guidance

by Cliff Weight, Director, ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I do not own shares in Ocado, but wish I had! Ocado summary of voting issues The AGM is on May 13th, 2021. The share price is worth a recap. The Stocko data shows the graph since IPO, which I think was around 160p. It looked like Ocado was overpriced as its share price collapsed to 80p, on Guy Fawkes' day Nov 5, 2012. If you had ...

PRU : Prudential – Company Information and Vote Guidance

by Cliff Weight, Director, ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I own shares in Prudential and M&G. PRU summary of voting issues The AGM is on May 13th, 2021. The Pru demerged M&G in Oct 2019, and now focuses on the Far East. The Stockopedia graph shows the modest share price increase since demerger and the (good) long term growth. However, Stockopedia now labels Pru as a "momentum trap". The Minerva report highlights various issues: Remuneration Report: Benefit concerns. High bonus ...

RDSA : Royal Dutch Shell – Company Information and Vote Guidance

by Cliff Weight, Director, ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I own shares in Shell and have done so for 30+ years. Shell summary of voting issues The AGM is on May 13th, 2021. The share price is up nearly >50% from its ludicrously low £9.00 on 28 Oct 2020 (I should have bought then!) and is now £14.30 (@7/5/21). In 2018, Shell was £27 a share. The share price fluctuates wildly, sort of correlated with oil ...

LLOY : Lloyds Banking Group – Company Information and Vote Guidance

by Cliff Weight, Director, ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I own shares in Lloyds. Lloyds summary of voting issues The AGM is on May 20th, 2021. The share price is up nearly 100% from its recent nadir of 24p  (22 Sep 2020) and is now 46p (@7/5/21). Like the other UK banks, Lloyds has performed woefully over 20 years, as the Stockopedia data shows. The best US banks (JP Morgan, Goldmans) have a different trajectory. Government ...

BP – Company Information and Vote Guidance

by Cliff Weight, Director ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I own shares in BP and have held for >30 years, having first bought when the Government floated part of BP at 330p a share. I was about 30 years ago a (remuneration) consultant to BP and met their senior executives and directors and was very impressed. The share price did eventually get up to £6+ and there were good dividends, but then came the disaster ...

AZN AstraZeneca – Company Information and Vote Guidance

by Cliff Weight, Director ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I own shares in AZN and have held for many years. ShareSoc has introduced a new added value service, for Full Members only, providing background information on leading companies and AGM vote guidance. Initially we are piloting this for FTSE30 companies, plus a few others in the FTSE100. You can access all the information that ShareSoc has written on a company by clicking on the Research and ...

Standard Chartered – Company Information and Vote Guidance

by Cliff Weight, Director ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. ShareSoc has introduced a new added value service, for Full Members only, providing background information on leading companies and AGM vote guidance. Initially we are piloting this for FTSE30 companies, plus a few others in the FTSE100. You can access all the information that ShareSoc has written on a company by clicking on the Research and Company Research buttons in the header on any ShareSoc webpage. This ...

Policy and Campaigns – Progress Update to 30 April 2021

In April 2021, we worked on: Woodford Campaign: Leigh Day are the only claim with insurance and funding in place. Harcus Parker have funding but do not have ATE insurance. RGL have neither insurance nor funding (other than funding for an initial step). Leigh Day (whose claim ShareSoc have endorsed) now have c 10,000 claimants registered and are the leading claim. Sirius Minerals Shareholder Group, Sirius Claim Group: A 20 page review of the evidence was finalised in April ...

Daily Mail, 2 May 2021, Aviva Investor Revolt

The Daily Mail quoted ShareSoc Director Cliff Weight in its 2 May Aviva article https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-9535371/Aviva-faces-investor-revolt-preference-shares-scandal.html   Aviva faces an investor revolt this week after angering shareholders by deciding not to claw back fees from directors who oversaw a preference shares scandal. The insurer was rocked in 2018 when it said it was considering buying back shares marketed as 'irredeemable' for less than they were trading at. It reneged on the announcement days later, by which time the shares had tumbled. It was forced to compensate investors. ...
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