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ShareSoc Launches Share Ownership Reform Proposals

ShareSoc has just issued the following press release: ShareSoc Launches Share Ownership Reform Proposals ShareSoc has been campaigning for more rights for shareholders and we have now launched specific proposals on how we believe share trading should be reformed. In particular our proposals are aimed at tackling the loss of voting and other rights that currently arises from the use of stockbroker nominee accounts. Our suggestions include: The development of a new low cost electronic trading facility as recommended by the Kay Review, and ...

Market Abuse – ESMA advises EU Commission on new regime

Market abuse is an allegation that regularly comes up associated with certain companies - frequently those listed on AIM. There has been an EU Directive on market abuse for some years, which laid down what EU countries should legislate against via suitable regulations. In the UK that framework was actually extended somewhat and you can see the current UK regulations under the "Code of Market Conduct (MAR1)" handbook - see http://www.fshandbook.info/FS/html/FCA/MAR/1. You just need to look at the headings of the chapters ...

High Pay Centre Launch Fat Cat Competition

The High Pay Centre have launched a competition to emphasise the huge amounts now paid to the Chief Executives of large public companies. It's called the Fantasy Fatcat competition and you can enter it here: http://highpaycentre.org/fantasy-fatcat . All you need to do is predict which CEOs will have raked in the most money and which bank will have the biggest team of bankers sucking the most cash from the casino economy. You have £35 million to spend to pick 5 CEOs and ...

Beating the index – Fundsmith results and newsletter

Terry Smith has recently issued his annual newsletter to investors in his Fundsmith Equity Fund. Those who invested primarily in UK focussed index trackers last year (FTSE-AllShare down 2.5%) will be possibly annoyed to discover that Mr Smith managed to achieve a total return of 23.3% last year. He had the advantage of being invested in global equities perhaps which generally did better than UK stocks, but he still managed to outperform his benchmark which is the MSCI World Index. How did ...

ScS Group listing – a pre-pack phoenix relists

Upholstery and flooring retailer ScS Group Plc (SCS) joined the main market of the LSE on the 28th January.  At the placing price of 175p the market cap was £70m.  Now you may recall that this company used to be listed a few years ago, but went into administration in July 2008. It's useful to look back at what happened then and at some aspects of the current business in case you are considering an investment in the company. In 2008 the ...