[Cliff Weight]

You can hold unquoted shares in a SIPP, so long as the platform allows it.

The ISA legislation does not allow unquoted shares to be held in an ISA.

[Cliff Weight]

Ganfeng decided against a scheme of arrangement so the above process is no longer necessary.

Ganfeng have made a contractual offer.

[Cliff Weight]

[Cliff Weight]

See also https://www.sharesoc.org/blog/brokers/buying-selling-and-voting-us-shares/

[Cliff Weight]

Investors Chronicle wrote up the chronic service problems of the platforms see https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/news/2021/02/22/platform-service-creaks-with-customer-surge/ and included this quote from Cliff Weight of ShareSoc:

Cliff Weight, director of individual investors campaigning group ShareSoc, said “Hargreaves Lansdown’s customers having to wait 34 minutes to talk to someone is awful and should be unacceptable. The Financial Conduct Authority and the Competition and Markets Authority looked at platforms a couple of years ago, but seemed to have allowed high cost, poor service, quasi-monopolistic behaviour to continue. They need to go back and have another look at platforms.”

[Cliff Weight]

The Telegraph wrote a useful article about AGMs and voting. see https://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/shares/use-broker-hold-investments-account/

It was headed

How to use your broker to hold your investments to account

But the real story was in the byline – Stockbrokers require investors to jump through lots of hoops to register their vote.

It also explained the problems and quoted ShareSoc:

However, new investors might not know that owning company shares comes with part ownership of a company – and with it the right to vote on issues at their annual general meetings, or AGMs. 

Investors can make their voice heard on far-ranging topics, from how much company leadership gets paid, to whether it pays a dividend or donates to a political party.    

But fewer than 1pc of people actually take up their votes, according to ShareSoc, a non-profit organisation which represents the interests of shareholders in Britain.

Cliff Weight, of ShareSoc, said this was due to stockbrokers making it challenging for DIY investors to use their vote. Each broker has a different process for submitting votes.

The Telegraph article also included its guide on how to navigate the different broker processes.

[Cliff Weight]

I use ii for an ISA, a SIPP and a trading portfolio. So does my wife.
I recently transferred my pension from Aviva into an ii SIPP and went through quite quickly, but I had to sell the holdings and then buy others. Buying Vanguard (Global tracker fund) through ii was cheap, 12 basis points, much cheaper than Aviva were charging me.

My wife and I find their service reliable and cost effective with a low fixed charge. I think the HL and Aj Bell charging structure (a percentage of portfolio size) is a nonsense for large portfolios. The breakeven is about £50,000.

They are also good at alerting me to corporate actions and AGMs and making voting relatively easy compared to AJ Bell where you have to send them a text and the tortuous processes I have been told about with Hargreaves Lansdown accounts.

I was also originally a TD Waterhouse client.

[Cliff Weight]

My understanding of their services is

If the voting with a click of a button also applies to AGMs where there is not a Corporate Action – customers would need to send us a secure message with their votes.

Whether investors are notified or can ask to be notified when an annual report is published. (not just corporate actions.) – I am afraid there is no option to be notified when an annual report is published, even when requested.

They notify investors on the below:

– All EGM’s, no matter what the resolutions are
– All Annual General Meetings where there is a proposed Corporate Action in the resolutions

Above events can be voted on with a a secure message with their votes. If there is a corporate action then you can vote with a single click.

You can still cast your vote on other events by sending them a secure message with your votes.

It is free to vote and they do not levy any charges on your votes.

As for all AJ Bell investors who do not vote across all meetings (announced by us or not),the AJ Bell nominee do not vote at all.

[Author]

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