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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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Babcock Price Fall, Segro Placing, TR Property

I said in a previous blog post “that I tend to avoid FTSE-100 companies as their share prices are driven by professional analysts’ comments, by geo-political concerns, by general economic trends and by commodity prices. You can buy a FTSE-100 company and soon find it’s going downhill because one influential analyst has decided its prospects are not as they previously thought”. Indeed that is exactly what happened after I made a recent purchase of Babcock International (BAB). Soon after, Shore Capital Markets ...

LeaderSomero AGM: A Good Attempt

I would like to commend Somero (AIM:SOM) for making a good attempt to engage with investors at the their AGM, despite Covid-19 restrictions. Their approach contrasts with that of many companies that have ducked the issue and simply closed their AGM to shareholders. Ahead of their AGM today, Somero announced web and telephone access for their AGM, which I have just participated in. The web link allowed audio access and gave shareholders the ability to ask questions. The technology worked well and ...

Market Trends, Big Miners and Will the Music Stop?

Stock markets continue to rise. They seem to be ignoring the bad company results that are going to come out in the next few months. Although there are signs that the Covid-19 epidemic is weakening, some sectors such as hospitality are going to be in lock-down for some time. The economy is clearly going into recession with many employees being laid off. The lack of consumer spending, not just because some people have less money to spend, but because others are ...

More on Placings – AVACTA

AVACTA (AVCT) has seen its share price rise from 100p on May 13 to 200p and then decline to 140p. I feel sorry for those investors who bought at around 200p. The sharp decline in the share price (20p on Tuesday and 20p on Wednesday) could be evidence that this deal has leaked. Source: Interactive Investor The £25m placing price is 120p, so the fact that the share price is staying stable today at 140p (at 09.48 as I write) suggests, in my  opinion, ...

Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill

This very important Bill is set for House of Commons passage this Wednesday (3rd June), and is expected to proceed to the House of Lords on 9th June. You will be able to see updates on the passage of the Bill online here. BEIS have published factsheets here on the gov.uk website. These are designed to explain the detail of the Bill in a more accessible way, and answer some of the questions people may have. The factsheets cover: Overview of the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill    ...

Fund Charges and Transaction Costs

In 2015-2017, the FCA reviewed and consulted on the asset management industry and one of its key recommendations was greater clarity on charges. Chris Sier was appointed to make recommendations on how this should be done. His focus was on pension funds and the costs they incurred from their fund managers. Today, I saw a LinkedIn post by Chris, which I found illuminating and contains links to two further articles, for those who are interested in this area. Chris, who was ...

Scottish Mortgage Investment Policy and LSE RNS Announcements

The Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (SMT) have issued their Annual Report and AGM Notice. Readers who hold this trust will not need reminding that it has shown a remarkable performance over the last few months. That’s when the stock market has been decimated by the Covid-19 epidemic and the share prices of many other similar trusts and of the companies they hold have fallen sharply. Last year SMT achieved a total share price return of 12.7% to the end of March and ...

The Ideal Board – Some Tips from First Flight

Chris Spencer-Phillips, Managing Director of First Flight Non-Executive and ShareSoc Director has written the attached useful article describing attributes of the "Ideal Board". As well as for company boards, we think it will be of interest to our members. the-ideal-board-march-2020

Sirius Claim Group – The Work Continues – Sirius Update 10, 29 May 2020

Since the completion of the takeover of Sirius Minerals PLC by Anglo American in March, the number of unanswered questions and the search for answers, and the consideration of possible legal action has continued.  The Sirius Claim group has been busy collating and reviewing nearly 2000 documents, videos, reviews etc. relating to Sirius Minerals and its decisions and actions over the course of the last few years leading to the takeover by Anglo American. At this stage there is still much work ...

The New Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill

The Government has introduced the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Bill into Parliament. This is quite an important piece of legislation for share investors and for property investors. Insolvency practitioners will also be interested as it makes substantial changes to that area. It’s had very little media coverage though as the news channels are swamped by coronavirus news, debate over Dominic Cummings breaking the lock-down (or not depending on your point of view) and Brexit news. The Bill is being “fast tracked” through ...
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