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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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Brydon Audit Review and FRC Update

Readers probably don’t need to be reminded of the poor reputation of auditors and accountants. The announcement yesterday from Staffline Group (STAF) reiterates the point. They note the latest...

Serco Charges, Unilever Trading and DotDigital AGM

I like to report on the latest evidence of fraudulent accounting just to remind folks how little one can trust the accounts of companies. I have not mentioned Serco...

Northern VCTs and Mercia

The 3 Northern VCTs (Northern Venture Trust, Northern 2 VCT and Northern 3 VCT) are proposing to novate their management agreements with NVM Private Equity LLP in favour of...

LSE Consultation on Market Structure and Trading Hours

The London Stock Exchange launched a consultation last week on the subject topic. You can find this consultation here: https://www.londonstockexchange.com/traders-and-brokers/rules-regulations/change-and-updates/stock-exchange-notices/2019/n1819_attach1.pdf I will compile a response to this consultation for...

RBS Shareholder Committee Campaign – Update 17

ShareSoc and UKSA have now paused this campaign, because RBS are now engaging better with shareholders and have announced a programme of 4 events a year specifically focussed on engagement with individual shareholders. See https://investors.rbs.com/shareholder-centre/shareholder-events.aspx, where you can also access a recording of RBS' successful virtual event on 25 Nov 2019. This has been a successful campaign. Notable achievements: We were able to successfully requisition 3 resolutions at two AGMs. Although we did not get shareholders to vote in favour of a ...

Edinburgh IT Fires Manager

The Edinburgh Investment Trust (EDIN) has fired fund manager Invesco. This company is an equity income trust focused primarily on the UK, although it also has an objective to...

FRC Fines Grant Thornton £650k, Ted Baker and Tullow

A ShareSoc member emailed us to give his view: This is terrible. Why wouldn’t the FRC name the partner and the company involved, especially when Grant Thornton has been...

Profit Warnings at XP Power and Ted Baker, plus Mercia Placing

A number of profit warnings this morning. The most interesting to me was at XP Power (XPP) although I do not hold it. It was interesting because as a...

M&G Property Fund Closed and M&C Saatchi Accounting Problems

The really bad news yesterday for many investors was that the £2.5 billion M&G Property Portfolio Fund had been closed to redemptions. This is of course an open-ended fund...

Mindless Investment Wins Out?

Last week on-line investment news site Citywire published a report headlined “Tracker fund sales smash records as UK investors pile into passives”. I was the first to add a...
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