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Possible Volkswagen Legal Action

The following note has been issued by Better Finance (a European Association of private investor groups of which ShareSoc is a member). It is self explanatory. Dear Members, In September, Volkswagen admitted that an estimated 11 million cars worldwide were involved in the falsified emission reports. Reports have emerged that Volkswagen’s top management had been aware of the deception since before the official ad-hoc announcement. Representing VW shareholders, the German investor association DSW, a member organisation of Better Finance, is examining the possibility ...

Future ShareSoc Events – London and Manchester

ShareSoc has two Growth Company Seminars coming up in the next couple of weeks. On the 21st October we have Sphere Medical, Sprue Aegis, EG Solutions and Venture Life presenting in the City of London and on the 28th October we have Safestyle, Redx Pharma and Tracsis presenting in Altrincham near Manchester. These are all interesting small cap companies and this is a great opportunity to ask questions of the management of these companies and meet other investors. In the latter ...

Pension Reforms – FCA Rule Changes to Protect Fools

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is concerned that many people are taking cash out of their pension pots and investing it in risky propositions or blowing it without taking suitable advice. They have launched a new public consultation therefore on rule book changes under the title "Pension reforms - proposed changes to our rules and guidance". They must consider it urgent as we only have to the end of October to respond. One particular change that might affect our readers is that ...

Can you make money in the FTSE100?

Can you make money by investing in the FTSE100? This thought came to mind when looking at some of the recent market statistics. It's quite an important question because most stock market investors are heavily biased to that segment of the market (as opposed to FTSE250, small cap or AIM stocks) simply because the market cap of the FTSE100 is a very high proportion of the overall UK market. For example, it's about 80% of the FTSE AllShare. So if you ...

Alliance Trust Announcement and ATSAG Response

Alliance Trust Plc have today announced a number of changes "to enhance shareholder value" as they put it. It includes a more focussed investment mandate, a reduction in costs, a commitment to narrowing the discount, a revised dividend policy and a simplification of the corporate structure. The Alliance Trust Shareholder Action Group (ATSAG), supported by ShareSoc, has generally welcomed the changes. You can read the full comments issued by ATSAG in this press release: https://www.sharesoc.org/pr70alliancenews.html Roger Lawson