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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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The Market, Renishaw and ASOS

We seem to be in one of those markets where investors are nervous because of a few big failures, some market commentators being bearish and the uncertainties caused by Brexit. While some of the “hot” stocks continue to power upwards, and the overall market trend in the UK is still positive, it only takes the slightest ripple to cause some stocks to fall sharply. That particularly applies to those where prices seemed to have got ahead of fundamentals. Yesterday (25/1/2108) Renishaw (RSW) ...

New Year Angel Competition

In light of the popularity of our Fat Santa and Scrooge competitions at Christmas time, we thought we would redress the balance and celebrate the beginning of a whole new year...

Carillion, EMIS and KPMG

Now that the dust has settled somewhat after the demise of Carillion (CLLN), it’s worth adding some more comments to my previous blog post on the subject. Ultimately it went bust for the same reason most companies do - it simply ran out of cash and could not pay its debts as they became due. As I said before, it collapsed eventually because of ballooning debt, poor cash collection and risky contracts. Unfortunately it seems that private investors were some of the ...

Regulation of shareholder action groups following the debacle of the RBS case

Regulation of shareholder action groups following the debacle of the RBS case (see http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-5266449/Demand-probe-RBS-Shareholders-Action-Group.html ). As regards the suggestion that such groups be “regulated”, I do not see how that would necessarily assist to protect the interests of shareholders. Indeed, it might result in even more involvement of lawyers when one of the big problems is that legal firms often set up and run such groups and this is often in their interests rather than the claimants. Introducing regulation would also make ...

Private Investor Dialogue with the FRC

Following the success of the last year's FRC event (photo below) a date of 26th November 2018 has been agreed for a Private Investor Dialogue with the FRC. Please put the date in your diaries. More details will follow later in the year.   Click here to see the feedback survey results of last year’s event. The FRC were very pleased with the event and the feedback research. We continue to have regular meetings with the FRC and are increasingly being invited to ...

Carillion Goes Into Liquidation

Carillion (CLLN) has gone into liquidation. No messing about with “administration” - it’s gone straight into liquidation with a receiver being appointed. The Government may apparently take over direct responsibility for some of the contracts that Carillion operated to provide public services, but it is unclear what will happen to the commercial contracts. Up to 43,000 jobs are at risk. In addition, many other companies are at risk who acted as suppliers to Carillion because as trade creditors they are likely ...

Want to Get Rich Quickly?

Do you sincerely want to be rich? That was the sales slogan used by fraudster Bernie Cornfeld which attracted many. Or perhaps even better, do you want to sincerely get rich quickly? That is in essence the sales pitch used by many promoters of CFDs (Contracts for Difference). CFDs are geared investments in stock market shares, bitcoins, commodities or any volatile instrument where you can magnify your profits many times. Or, of course, magnify your losses. You can, to put it simply, ...

ShareSoc Requests Investigation into the Affairs of Blancco Technology Group

Press Release 101 - ShareSoc Requests Investigation into the Affairs of Blancco Technology Group ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) is requesting the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to investigate certain issues concerning Blancco Technology Group plc (BLTG), an AIM listed software company specialising in data erasure. Shareholders in the company have been financially devastated by the collapse in the share price following the reporting of several accounting issues at the company. As a result the share price ...

KIDS – Who Is Kidding Who?

There was an interesting article published by Citywire yesterday on the subject of Hargreaves Lansdown removing 96 investment trusts from its trading platform. Such trusts as Dunedin Enterprise, Blue Planet and Oryx International Growth have been suspended. The reason is because they have not yet made available a “KID” (Key Investment Document) which is required by the new PRIIPS regulation and mandated by the FCA/EU from the start of this year (see https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/priips-disclosure-key-information-documents for more information). At present investment trusts are mainly ...

RBS Campaign Update 10 – 161 forms submitted, press release issued and huge media coverage

Update 10 29/12/2017 - 161 forms submitted, press release issued and huge media coverage Today I travelled to London to deliver the 161 signed forms to RBS. Yesterday, we issued a press release. Radio 4 reported on it in their Business Briefing at 6.25am. There were lots of press stories. Cliff Weight Delivers Requisitions to RBS We thought the press coverage today was balanced. We have worked well (together with RBS people) in avoiding the negative publicity that occurred earlier in the year. This is ...
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