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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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One in 10 investment trust board directors have no ‘skin in the game’

By Cliff Weight, ShareSoc Director The new remuneration guidelines from the Investment Association have this to say about Share Ownership: Non-Executive Shareholding Shareholders encourage non-executive directors to own shares...

Mello Event, ProVen and ShareSoc Seminars and Lots More News

It’s been a busy last two days for me with several events attended. The first was on Tuesday when I attended the Mello London event in Chiswick. It was...

RBS Virtual Shareholder Engagement Meeting 25 Nov 2019 at 7pm

RBS have now announced details of their Virtual Shareholder Engagement Meeting on 25 Nov 2019 at 7.00pm, when you can listen and watch on the internet and ask questions, from the comfort of your home or wherever you may be. I hope many members will attend this meeting. To sign up and register click here You will need to submit your shareholder number. It is on your shareholder certificate. What happens if you hold your shares via a nominee?  I have asked RBS to clarify if ...

FRC: Individual Shareholders Engagement Meeting 5 Nov 2019

This was an excellent event, well organised by the FRC with about 80 attendees from ShareSoc and the UK Shareholders’ Association. It is very reassuring to hear the underlying...

ShareSoc-UKSA Response: Law Commission Review of Intermediated Securities – Call for Evidence

ShareSoc-UKSA submitted a joint response on behalf of individual investors, on 5 Nov 2019. The key points we made were: Communication by email rather than by post is now the norm and assumed as the default position. Printing annual reports and shareholder circulars and sending them to shareholders by post is no longer necessary. Postage and printing costs were some of the key drivers of the nominee system. A modern system of intermediated securities should embrace and recognise modern technology and ensure ...

RNS Announcement Emails and Mello Presentation

Many private investors like me have been using a service from Investegate to deliver new RNS announcements via email. But recently, and not for the first time, delivery of...

Exchange Market Size in Stockopedia and BHP plus RIO

I noticed that the share prices of BHP Group (BHP) and Rio Tinto (RIO) jumped this morning – at least for these behemoths of the FTSE-100 they moved substantially...

Law Commission Review of Intermediated Securities Consultation

I am writing to ask you to make a personal submission to The Law Commission Call for Evidence on the subject of dematerialisation, intermediated securities, shareholder rights and nominees/platforms. This is the most important issue that ShareSoc-UKSA campaigns on. Your response must be done by 5 November and submitted to By email to int-sec@lawcommission.gov.uk. Commercial and Common Law Team, Law Commission, 1st Floor, Tower, 52 Queen’s Anne Gate, London, SW1H 9AG. I attach a copy of the official ShareSoc-UKSA  response, which runs to 38 pages. A personal ...

The Vultures are Circling – Woodford, Carpetright et al

With the demise of the Neil Woodford’s empire and the winding up of the Woodford Equity Income Fund, investors are looking for whom to blame – other than themselves...

Law Commission Error on Segregated Accounts

In a previous blog post on the Law Commission’s consultation on Intermediated Securities I queried their claim that all investors in nominee accounts had the option to use a...
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