ShareSoc News

With Gratitude to Steve Holdsworth and his Family

  Just over a year ago, the ShareSoc team was saddened to learn of the passing of our staunch supporter, Steve Holdsworth. We were recently overwhelmed to learn that Steve’s support continued after his passing and want to express our immense gratitude to Steve’s family for the generous legacy that ShareSoc received. It will help us to develop ShareSoc and move forward with our campaigns and services for our members. Our members’ financial support is essential for ShareSoc to be able to fulfil its ...

FCA Consultation GC23/2 Financial Promotions on Social Media

  ShareSoc and UKSA have responded to the FCA’s consultation on financial promotions via social media. We express concern that less experienced investors are vulnerable to simplistic and potentially misleading messages published via social media, which may tempt them into unsuitable, high-risk, investments. We therefore propose stricter regulation of social media messaging that may encourage inappropriate investment. Mark Bentley, Director, ShareSoc

SIGnet Investors Network Launches New Beginners’ Group 

  SIGnet is excited to announce the launch of a new Beginners’ Group, for those in the early stages of their investing career. The Conveners for the Beginners’ Group will be Paul Fisher and John Calvert, of the Signet Leeds Originals and Leeds Veritas Groups. Both have been SIGnet members and keen investors for many years. Bill Fawkner-Corbett, Head of SIGnet and a member of the Central London, Leeds Originals and US Groups, who has been investing (on and off) for 50 years, ...

ShareSoc and UKSA Response to Digitisation Task Force Interim report

  In this article we highlighted the significance of the interim report issued by Sir Douglas Flint on behalf of the Digitisation Taskforce (DT) and our concerns about it.  After careful deliberation, ShareSoc and UKSA have now submitted this response to Sir Douglas. Special thanks are due to Mohammed Amin, who co-ordinated our joint response.  We express concern that the proposals in the interim report do not fulfil the DT’s terms of reference. In particular, they do not ensure that the rights of current ...

Diageo plc Information and Vote Guidance 2023

AGM:  28 September 2023 Proxy deadline:  26 September 2023 ShareSoc provide this added value voting information service for Full Members only, providing background information on leading companies and AGM vote guidance. Below are links to the: 1. Stockopedia summary report. 2. Minerva Vote recommendations for the 28 September 2023 AGM based on their standard template. 3. Minerva detailed research report for the AGM. Summary of voting issues at this year’s AGM  The Minerva report highlights various issues and recommends voting against two of the resolutions. Readers should make their own ...

Ashtead Group plc Information and Vote Guidance 2023

AGM:  6 September 2023 Proxy deadline:  4 September 2023 ShareSoc provide this added value voting information service for Full Members only, providing background information on leading companies and AGM vote guidance. Below are links to the: 1. Stockopedia summary report. 2. Minerva Vote recommendations for the 6 September 2023 AGM based on their standard template. 3. Minerva detailed research report for the AGM. Summary of voting issues at this year’s AGM  The Minerva report highlights various issues and recommends voting against two of the resolutions. Readers should make their own ...

How to Format Posts in the ShareSoc and SIGnet Online Forums

Our online forums offer the capability of posting formatted content. However, it is not very clear how to format posts and how to include links and images.  We have now produced this video which shows users of our forums how to use the formatting tools that are available.  We hope that our members find this helpful. You need to be logged in to our website to make full use of our forums, which enable online discussions and posting of useful information and/or questions ...

Flint Interim Report: A Betrayal?

Background ShareSoc’s Shareholder Rights Campaign has been one of our longest running and most important campaigns. The reason it is so important is that current deficiencies in the rights of beneficial shareholders severely hamper our ability, and that of shareholder action groups generally, to hold company managements to account. This impacts the effectiveness of many of our other campaigns. Visit the campaign page for further details and further explanation of the issues. Since we launched the campaign in 2014, we have made considerable ...

Corporate Reporting and Audit Regulations

Further to our response to a BEIS consultation, the government has now published new draft regulations concerning corporate reporting, including measures that companies are taking to detect and prevent fraud.  The draft regulations are expected to be debated in parliament this autumn. If approved by Parliament, the Regulations will come into force on 1st January 2025.  The draft regulations implement the following four new reporting requirements for very large companies that were consulted on in the 2021 White Paper on ‘Restoring Trust in ...

SIGnet Launches new London Investor Group

SIGnet is excited to announce the launch of a new in-person, evening group, for members in the London area. You are invited: to an initial online meeting to explain more about the group, meet other investors, and confirm the details of the in-person group meetings. This launch meeting will be held on Zoom at 7pm on 30th August and is expected to last approximately 90 minutes. It is open to all investors with an interest in our new group, but you will ...

VOD – Vodafone Group plc Information and Vote Guidance 2023

AGM:  25 July 2023 Proxy deadline:  21 July 2023   ShareSoc provide this added value voting information service for Full Members only, providing background information on leading companies and AGM vote guidance. Below are links to the: 1. Stockopedia summary report. 2. Minerva Vote recommendations for the 25 July 2023 AGM based on their standard template. 3. Minerva detailed research report for the AGM. Summary of voting issues at this year’s AGM  The Minerva report highlights various issues and recommends voting against four of the resolutions. Readers should make their own ...

ShareSoc 2023 AGM: resolutions passed

ShareSoc (UK Individual Shareholders Society), the not-for-profit membership organisation representing the rights of individual shareholders, is pleased to announce that all resolutions proposed to members at the AGM, held on 28th June, were duly passed.   The results are as follows:      For  Against   Abstain  Total  Resolution 1: To receive the Report and Accounts of the Board of Directors for the year ended 31st December 2022.  44  2  1  47  Resolution 2: To re-elect as a member of the Board Ms. Jema Janet Elspeth Mary Arnold (appointed 06/02/2023).  38  4  3  45  Resolution 3: To re-elect as a member ...