Blogs

Latest Blogs

Shorting Shares – An Example of Motives

One of the most peculiar stories in the last week was the revelation that the attack on the Borussia Dortmund football team's bus was not a terrorist attack after all. According to German police it was done by an individual investor who hoped to profit by shorting the shares. By killing or injuring their star players, he expected their publicly quoted share price to fall sharply. Indeed the share price did fall by 3% but as the injuries suffered were relatively minor ...

A General Election – What Should Be In the Manifestos?

There is to be a General Election on the 8th June in case you have not heard. That has the unfortunate consequence on freezing Government business, with the prospect of changes of Ministers thereafter. Any formal consultations - for example on improved Corporate Governance and remuneration restraints - will be deferred. So the key question now is what would we like to see in the manifestos of the leading political parties? Here's my list: A commitment to ensure that private shareholders in ...

Voting Your Shares – ISAs

One of our Members has responded to our previous note on voting your shares held in nominee accounts and in particular ISAs by saying that when he requested they submit votes on his Rolls-Royce shares the Idealing company said there would be a £30 administration charge for doing so. The ISA regulations make no provision for such a charge so I have advised that he should tell them this is illegal. Below is the relevant part of the ISA Regulations which some ...

Letter in the FT on Pre-Packs

The Financial Times published a letter from me on Pre-Pack administrations and their abuses today - see: https://www.ft.com/content/f9d55388-2109-11e7-b7d3-163f5a7f229c . More will be in the latest ShareSoc Informer Newsletter which is about to be published. Roger Lawson

Hornby, BHP Billiton, Pan African, and Share Radio

A few items of miscellaneous news worthy of comment: Investor Alexander Anton has launched a campaign to have Chairman Roger Canham removed from the board of Hornby (HRN) and get himself appointed as director. A requisition for a General Meeting of the company has been submitted accordingly. Hornby, the maker of train sets and toys, has had a poor financial performance in recent years with production difficulties, consistent losses, and a turnaround plan that is not obviously working. Mr Anton was ...