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Guidance for UK Boards on Stakeholders

Review and commentary by Cliff Weight ICSA: The Governance Institute and The Investment Association (IA) have launched guidance to help UK company boards ensure they understand and weigh up the interests of their stakeholders when making strategic decisions. Commentary: My view is • They have recommended 10 principles. Principle number 9 is important -“The board should report to its shareholders on how it has taken the impact on key stakeholders into account when making decisions.” - The Government will introduce legislation to this effect ...

Obituary – Steve Marshall

The Daily Telegraph ran a lengthy obituary on Steve Marshall today, who died recently at the young age of 60. It covered his financial career in a not particularly complimentary way although some might say he took on a lot of difficult positions. He first came to public prominence when he became CEO of Railtrack after Gerald Corbett was forced to resign, despite having minimal experience of the railway industry. Railtrack was part of the former British Rail that had been privatised ...

Accrol and Pricing Power

I won’t be the first to comment on the events at Accrol (Kate Burgess covered it well for example in yesterday's FT), but the suspension of the shares from AIM on the 8th October caught a lot of investors by surprise. The latest announcement this morning said: “The Directors believe that the current challenges facing the Company relate largely to FY18 and are likely to have less of an impact on the Company's trading performance in FY19. The Board are therefore ...

Abcam, Voting and Non-Executives

I am a long-standing holder of Abcam (ABC) and have been very happy with my investment – a compound annual return of 33% p.a. since I first purchased the shares in 2006 according to ShareScope. But the notice of this year’s AGM (to be held in Cambridge as normal) has made me unhappy for other reasons. Firstly, I tried to vote. Rather than use the paper proxy voting form (I am on the register so I get one) I thought it would ...

A 6% Yield & Money Back in 2023, What’s Not to Like?

The answer to the question, in short, is "plenty" IMO. In this era of low interest rates, an investment offering a "guaranteed" 6% yield and return of capital after 6 years may seem appealing, superficially. Investors, however, need to dig a little deeper and examine the strength of that guarantee. This particular investment, being issued on behalf of Select Property Group, came to my attention as it is being offered by one of my brokers, YouInvest (and several other "intermediaries", including Saga Share ...