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ShareSoc Deplores Withdrawal of Personal Crest Membership by Brokers

ShareSoc has issued the following Press Release: Following the takeover of Stocktrade by Alliance Trust Savings (ATS), the latter have decided to withdraw support for Personal Crest Membership from their clients. Clients will either have to transfer into the ATS nominee service, turn their holdings into paper share certificates (a truly archaic form nowadays which are soon to be outlawed by an EU Directive), move to another broker or liquidate their holdings. This continues a recent trend for stockbrokers to terminate the ...

Telecom Plus and Camkids – Creative Accounting and Pay Issues

Telecom Plus (TEP) held their AGM yesterday (12/8/2015). The company provides a complete range of utility services - gas, electricity, broadband, fixed line and mobile phones via a "club" concept promoted by a network of self-employed (mainly part-time) distributors. They offer competitive pricing and an efficient operation (I am one of their customers as well as being a shareholder). The share price of this company has gone from near 800p up to well over 1800p and back down to below 800p ...

Undisclosed Fees and AGMs

It's interesting what you can learn at Annual General Meetings, or from ShareSoc reports on them, even if you don't attend in person. One of the recent news items in the financial press was about the disclosure of what private equity fund managers have received in "carried interest". It transpired that two very large US pension funds, Calpers and Calstrs, had no idea how much their fund managers had earned in this way over many years on top of their normal fees. ...

Goodwin still on the hook for RBS debacle

The Herald newspaper have reported an astonishing attempt by the lawyers for Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to have Fred Goodwin excluded from the legal case over the rights issue in 2008. They wanted four former directors removed from the case so as to streamline proceedings. However the judge presiding over the case threw this attempt out. The directors signed off the prospectus and hence should surely be accountable for what the plaintiffs claim was a misleading document. But the lawyer for ...

Does Rolls-Royce need shaking up?

Does Rolls-Royce (RR.) need shaking up? Or more to the point perhaps, will they be following the disclosure that activist fund manager ValueAct has taken a 5% stake in the company, although their agenda is as yet unclear. On the 30th July Rolls-Royce issued their half-year results. Results were disappointing as expected. The order book was up, but underlying revenue was down and underlying profit before tax down by 32%. This is basically the same story as was evident at the full ...