ShareSoc News

Halifax UK Growth Fund – Note for ShareSoc Members – Appeal for Help

Harcus Parker (HP) has been investigating claims against fund managers and others for closet tracking: the practice of describing a fund as actively managed and charging for that service but in fact merely tracking an index or constraining performance. HP are currently focussing investigations on two subsidiaries of Lloyds Banking Group, Scottish Widows and the Halifax. HP have now identified that the Halifax UK Growth Fund appears to be managed in exactly the same manner as the Scottish Widows UK Growth Fund, ...

Bacanora Lithium: Think BIG ask Board to seek better offer

Think BIG, who ShareSoc are supporting in their campaign, have sent the following letter to the Board of Bacanora Lithium. This letter will be RNS’d by ShareSoc at 07.45 tomorrow morning 25 November.  Think BIG - Bacanora Investors’ Group 24 November , 2021 To the Board of Directors Bacanora Lithium plc (the “Board”). In this Open Letter we explain our reasons why we think the offer from Ganfeng is not in the best interests of shareholders, suggest the Board seek to negotiate a ...

FT publishes Audit Reform Letter signed by ShareSoc and UKSA

The FT has published our letter about "Letter: Investors are let down by the decision to dilute boardroom rules" see https://www.ft.com/content/ff6af1c7-6cb9-4fd8-9be0-43c11bcf89bb The letter we wrote was as follows: Sir Many investors will be disappointed to read the article headed “Backlash spurs dilution of audit reform” (Report, November 9). The reforms are supposed to restore trust in governance and audit. Sir John Kingman’s review emphasised that the best way to do this was to focus on “the interests of consumers of financial information, not producers”. ...

Bacanora Update 30 Oct – Think BIG send letter to shareholders

Sharesoc continue to support Think BIG. ShareSoc have requisitioned the shareholder register and Think BIG have this week sent the following letter to close to 10,000 shareholders. This had to be sent by post, incurring significant costs which were met by crowdfunding from dissatisfied investors, as the company refused to supply us with email addresses: Think BiG Letter to BCN Shareholders https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/news/2021/10/14/the-battle-for-bacanora/ is a good write up of the issues and why we think there should be a higher offer for Bacanora. More information ...

FRC consultation on proposed revisions to the Audit Firm Governance Code – UKSA and ShareSoc draft response

UKSA’s policy team are drafting a reply, jointly with ShareSoc, to the FRC’s consultation on proposed revisions to the Audit Firm Governance Code see https://www.frc.org.uk/getattachment/1a453bac-671f-4375-a738-9d6fc7f73262/Consultation-Proposed-Revisions-to-the-Audit-Firm-Governance-Code-(August-2021).pdf. We believe audits are important to shareholders as they underpin their confidence and trust in their companies, management and the numbers they report. In relation to audits it therefore follows that the audit regulator’s requirements for audit firms’ governance is also important and we would like to provide our thoughts to the FRC on this. We ...

Policy and Campaigns – Progress Update to 12 October 2021

Since June 14 (see https://www.sharesoc.org/sharesoc-news/policy-and-campaigns-progress-update-14-june-2021/  for previous update), ShareSoc's Policy and Campaigns' team have worked on:   Woodford Campaign: Leigh Day have submitted their claim. They now have 11,000 claimants and another 3,000 registered, but yet to sign their Leigh Day agreement. We held a very successful webinar on 30 Sept with 942 registrants. ShareSoc’s Woodford Campaign now has over 1,500 members, which enables us to lobby strongly for regulatory change and to hold to account those who have done wrong.  ...

Woodford Campaign Update 7
7 October 2021

1. Leigh Day achieved a significant legal milestone and submitted their court proceedings against Link on 27 September. 2. 942 people registered for ShareSoc’s “Woodford: What Happens Next” webinar with 684 attending. This was our biggest webinar ever and possibly the biggest webinar of its kind. 3. Exclusive Special Offer for Campaign members (which came with free ShareSoc Associate membership). You can now Upgrade to FULL Membership, allowing you to watch recordings of Woodford webinars including “What Happens Next” and “What Went Wrong”. ...

Improved Registration for ShareSoc Events

After many months of work behind the scenes, we are delighted to announce an improved and simplified process for registering for our online events. Whereas previously two steps were required to register, first registering via our website and then with Zoom, registration is now done in a single step. After submitting your details, you will automatically be registered with Zoom for the event you wish to attend. Zoom will then email you automatically with login details for the event. We recommend that ...

Woodford: What Happens Next? – Webinar Report

This is an official ShareSoc News Item written by ShareSoc Director Cliff Weight. 942 registered for ShareSoc’s webinar with 684 attending. Wow! Our biggest webinar ever and possibly the biggest webinar of its kind. Also, we now have 1,465 members of our Woodford Campaign. With these sorts of numbers we can pack much more of a punch with the FCA, Government and Hargreaves Lansdown. The Campaign has socially responsible aims of making the investment world a better place. It very much fits in ...

Leigh Day issue court proceedings against Link

Leigh Day issued court proceedings against Link on Monday 27 September 2021.  This is a huge step forward in getting compensation for the many thousands of unfortunates who lost money in Woodford’s WEIF funds. Leigh Day’s issuing of proceedings is a big milestone. We are concerned, however, that roughly only 5-10% of the 270,000 or so investors seem to have joined any claim so far. We urge all WEIF investors to join a claim. We believe that Leigh Day are streets ahead of ...

ShareSoc response to Treasury UK Prospectus Regime Review Consultation

It looks like the €8m limit may be removed and also that it may become easier for individual investors to participate in fund raisings. In addition shareholder rights to prevent dilution will be strengthened. This consultation looks to be good news for individual investors. In our 10 page response to HM Treasury we said: We welcome this consultation paper. ShareSoc is a not-for-profit organisation with over 8,000 members. We represent the interests of 5 million individual shareholders and 12 million individual investors in the ...

ShareSoc responds to Primary Markets Effectiveness Review

In our 9 page response we said: We welcome this consultation paper CP21/21. ShareSoc is a not-for-profit organisation with over 8,000 members. We represent the interests of 5 million individual shareholders and 12 million individual investors in the UK. We are members of Better Finance who, together with our sister organisations in other countries represent individual investors throughout Europe. We are also members of the World Federation of Investors. ShareSoc Chair, Mark Northway, is also Chair of the World Federation of Investors. Our members ...