Shareholder Democracy

Are Your Investee Companies Engaging Properly During This Crisis?

  PIWorld and Alma PR are conducting a survey of shareholder views on how companies are engaging with their shareholders during the dislocation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The results of this survey will be valuable in demonstrating to companies what their shareholders expect of them at this difficult time. The survey does not identify you or capture any data about you - only your views on this subject. It takes 2-3 minutes to complete. The more responses that are received the more influential ...

Communicating with Shareholders in Covid times

The FRC have prepared this infographic about communicating Covid-19 impacts to shareholders (click to view larger image). Online Q&A forums and live streaming of AGMs are good ideas. However, individual investors are an important constituency in this, but not properly considered in the new guidance on AGMs. Shareholders will want to question directors about the impact of coronavirus and its implications on the company liquidity and solvency and will want reassurance about these and the ongoing business model. Never has the importance of ...

Shareholder Rights – Response from Kelly Tolhurst, BEIS Minister

There are continuing sign of progress on shareholder rights. The Law Commission Review is progressing and we have received the following letter from the Government. Corporate Responsibility Minister Kelly...

AGMs and impact of Covid-19

By Cliff Weight, ShareSoc Director This is a complex area. It would be good to hear your views and ideas. Please add them via the comments box below this...

Share Centre Takeover and Holding Unlisted Shares

This morning it was announced that the Share Centre (Share Plc: SHRE) were recommending a takeover bid from Antler Holdco, the holding company of Interactive Investor and the ii...

Rio Tinto and Climate Change: Not just an NGO issue

For the AGM of Rio Tinto Ltd in Australia in May, a shareholder resolution has been tabled to: request that the company, in subsequent annual reporting, disclose short, medium...

Brexit and Why Shareholder Votes Matter

Last night Brexit got done. We exited the EU after 47 years. But we will need to resume the conversation to secure a trade deal. That still leaves room...

Shareholder Rights: Positive noises from Law Commission re nominees and Sirius problems

Our most important campaign is Shareholder Rights which relates to the current problems with nominee accounts. This is so important because it impacts all our other campaigns and work...

Retail Shareholder Participation in Voting – US study

Cliff Weight, ShareSoc Director reviews Retail Shareholder Participation in the Proxy Process: Monitoring, Engagement, and Voting: Working Paper N° 637/2019 November 2019: By Alon Brav, Matthew D. Cain, Jonathon Zytnick This...

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...

Deferred Shares Report and Voting Trends Survey

Study shows low adoption of deferred share plans Tom Gosling, Partner, PwC | Executive Fellow, London Business School | Steering Committee Member, Purposeful Company Taskforce has written a good...

Albion Venture Capital VCT (AAVC) AGM Result and Actions

30% of shareholders opposed the increase in fees at the AAVC AGM. This is a remarkable result and sends a strong signal to the directors that they need to better engage with their shareholders. I think the % voting against would have been higher if: we had started our campaign earlier we had received the shareholder register earlier we had been able to get in touch with all shareholders prior to the AGM the directors had not sent out a letter to ...