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Why Share Certificates are Dangerous and We Need a New System

The national press have covered the story of Deryn and Derek Hemment who face a demand for £25,000 from Capita to replace lost share certificates. They held shares in Compass Group worth £1.5 million and Capita posted them new certificates via second class post. But they never arrived and cannot be traced. Capita says it's not their problem because their terms and conditions make it clear that certificates are sent at the recipients risk. Capita appear to have been acting as ...

Governance in Investment Trusts – Alliance Trust, Baronsmead VCT 3 and the Core VCTs

The battle for the soul of Alliance Trust continues - or so their Chairman would have it. But even institutional proxy advisors ISS and PIRC have now come out in support of Elliott Advisors and their resolutions to appoint three new directors at the AGM on the 29th April. Alliance have said they are looking for a new truly independent non-executive director, but will they be anyone who is likely to disagree with the existing board or take a contrary view? ...

THE EUROVOTE PROJECT – Help requested

Help needed please !!! The Eurovote Project allows investors in other countries to have their shares voted at British AGMS. One of our shareholders takes authorisation supplied by us to the allotted AGM. Recent illness has prevented this from happening in six of our eighteen allocations. We are asking if anyone with shares in the companies below would be prepared to help us to do this. There is no significant effort involved if you are going to the AGM anyway, and a ...

Shell & BG Group Deal – Not Everyone’s Happy

(Pay packages and short termism at BG Group and Amec Foster Wheeler) Shareholders in BG Group should surely be happy. The offer from Shell values their shares at about £13.50 per share which is a premium of 50% to that which they have recently been trading. Although investors will get most of the value in Shell shares which means they will still be holding shares in the depressed oil and gas sector. An indication that perhaps not all investors are happy is ...

Changes to Pre-Emption Rights Principles

The FCA have issued a note from the Pre-Emption Group giving some revised "principles" to be followed by public companies. As the note says "Pre-emption rights are a cornerstone of UK company law and provide shareholders with protection against dilution of their investments".  In general UK companies cannot issue more shares without the approval of shareholders, which is why on most Annual General Meeting agendas you see two linked resolutions that permit allotment of new shares and a partial disapplication of ...