ShareSoc News

ShareSoc Issues New Recommendations for voting at the prospective Victoria Plc General Meeting

PRESS RELEASE 35 (18/09/2012) On the 28th August, ShareSoc issued voting recommendations for the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Victoria Plc on the 31st August. We suggested shareholders should support the existing board based on what the company had stated concerning the past proposals from the “Concert Party” of Alexander Anton, Geoff Wilding, New Fortress Finance and other members of the Anton family. But a number of directors were removed at the AGM as more votes were submitted against their re-election than ...

ShareSoc Recommends Shareholders Support the Existing Board at Victoria

PRESS RELEASE 34 (28/08/2012) Bearing in mind the dispute between shareholders at Victoria Plc, ShareSoc (the “UK Individual Shareholders Society”), has considered the issues raised and recommends that shareholders support the stance of the existing board of directors and vote accordingly at the forthcoming General Meetings. According to the announcement made by the company on the 23rd August, the latest dispute has arisen because the “Former Directors” (Geoff Wilding, Alexander Anton and Sir Bryan Nicholson), who were all non-executive directors, proposed that an ...

ShareSoc Welcomes U-Turn on LTIP at Intercede

PRESS RELEASE 33 (21/08/2012) ShareSoc (the “UK Individual Shareholders Society”), welcomes the announcement today by Intercede Group that the terms of the LTIP devised in August 2011 have been revised. ShareSoc heavily criticised the original terms of that LTIP and subsequently formed a Shareholder Action Group to get it changed. In a note we issued in March 2012, we criticised the nominal cost of the options awarded under the LTIP, the illogical performance conditions which were based on eps when the company needed ...

ShareSoc Launches Campaign on Excessive Share Price Discount at Graphite Enterprise Trust

PRESS RELEASE 32 (15/08/2012) ShareSoc (the “UK Individual Shareholders Society”), has launched a Shareholder Action Group in relation to Graphite Enterprise Trust Plc. We have major concerns about the persistent discount to Net Asset Value (NAV) at which the shares of this company trade and some aspects of the corporate governance of the company. In the view of ShareSoc, and the shareholders in Graphite Enterprise whom we represent, the discount at which the company’s shares trade (about 34% at the time of writing) ...

ShareSoc Comments on the Kay Review Recommendations

PRESS RELEASE 31 (23/07/2012) ShareSoc welcomes many of the recommendations published today in the Kay Review of Equity Markets. Much of the analysis of the existing defects in the operation of the market and the returns obtained by investors is undoubtedly sound. We particularly applaud Recommendation 17 which says “The Government should explore the most cost effective means for individual investors to hold shares directly on an electronic register”. One of the key elements of our manifesto is that individual shareholders should be ...

ShareSoc urges shareholders to vote in favour of the removal of Sir Michael Rake as EasyJet Chairman

PRESS RELEASE 30 (21/07/2012) ShareSoc notes the proposal to remove Sir Michael Rake from his role as Chairman at EasyJet and feels obliged to support it, in the light of the many crucial positions that Sir Michael Rake currently holds. As well as his role as chairman of EasyJet, Sir Michael Rake is also Chairman of BT Group, Deputy Chairman, senior independent director and chair of the audit committee at Barclays Plc. He is also a non-executive director of McGraw Hill and holds ...

ShareSoc urges shareholders to vote against Lighthouse Group delisting

PRESS RELEASE 29 (11/07/2012) ShareSoc has criticised the planned delisting of Lighthouse Group shares and urges all shareholders to vote against the resolution at the forthcoming EGM. Delisting is severely detrimental to smaller shareholders and the Company has offered no exit. As is common with AIM delistings, there was a sharp fall of 50% in the share price following the announcement as few people wish to hold shares for which there is no public and liquid market. ShareSoc is not always against delisting if ...

ShareSoc comments on the Barclays LIBOR rate manipulation debacle and Diamond’s pay.

PRESS RELEASE 28 (04/07/2012) Sharesoc, the UK Individual Shareholders Society, believes the announcement by Chancellor George Osborne of an inquiry into Barclays Bank and other banks’ LIBOR rate manipulation to be chaired by Andrew Tyrie, Chairman of the Treasury Select Committee is a step in the right direction. However, the Society contends that this rigging of the market is but a small part of the ongoing banking fiasco, the seeds of which were first sown some twenty or more years ago. David Blundell, Chairman ...

ShareSoc’s submission to the Parliamentary Committee considering the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

ShareSoc’s submission to the Parliamentary Committee considering the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill which will encompass the changes to Company Law to enforce a binding vote on pay is contained in this document: ERR_Submission

Cable’s Pay Reforms – A step in the right direction

PRESS RELEASE 27 (20/06/2012) ShareSoc (the “UK Individual Shareholders Society”) welcomes the publication by Vince Cable of more details on how he intends to reform the pay of company directors. In our view this is a worthwhile step toward ensuring that remuneration policies are more reasonable in future. ShareSoc Chairman Roger Lawson had this to say: “It is clear that the pay of senior executives has got out of control and no longer bears any relationship to the growth in company profits in ...

Faroe Petroleum Responds to ShareSoc’s Concerns

PRESS RELEASE 26 (25/05/2012) At yesterday’s AGM, Faroe Petroleum withdrew a resolution authorising large performance incentive payments to its executives. John Bentley, Faroe Chairman said: “Since the publication of the Notice of Annual General Meeting in April 2012, the Company has been in further dialogue with its larger shareholders. Following those discussions, the Company intends to make a number of changes to the proposed Faroe Petroleum Exceptional Performance Incentive Plan ("EPIP") and consequently Resolution 7 has been withdrawn.” On 2nd May, ShareSoc issued a ...

ShareSoc’s submission to the Parlimentary Treasury Select Committee inquiry into Corporate Governance and Remuneration

Our submission to the Parlimentary Treasury Select Committee inquiry into Corporate Governance and Remuneration in systemically important financial institutions is contained in this document: TSC_Submission