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Rensburg AIM VCT to Wind Up

Four years ago ShareSoc ran a campaign to shake up the Rensburg AIM VCT which historically had given a dire investment performance and had very high management fees. These things were changed but it still has the same Chairman, Richard Battersby, and other directors. We did question at the time what the future of the company might be because the company tended to return any cash from investment realisations to shareholders thus effectively gradually winding down the size of the company. The ...

Affected by the Oil/Gas Price slump? Weir, Petrofac and IDOX

I don't think any investor will be unaware that the price of oil has fallen off a cliff in the last few weeks. It was good to hear at the IDOX AGM this morning (26/2/2015) that the impact on their business was relatively minor - they supply engineering management information software plus public sector software and the former does have about 11% of sales in the oil/gas sector. The share price barely moved after a positive announcement in the morning that ...

DFS Furniture IPO – Should you invest?

DFS Furniture have announced an IPO which will be available to retail investors - as long as you are happy to "take" the price the institutions are willing to pay. Anyone considering investing in the shares might like to note the comments below, but you are of course advised to read the full prospectus and/or take professional advice on the matter if necessary. This writer is well qualified to write on this subject because I used to hold DFS shares the last ...

Closet Index Trackers – Investigations in Progress

Since publishing a previous article on closet index trackers back in December 2014, the topic has received a lot more coverage in the financial press. Closet index trackers are those investment funds that claim to be "actively" managed and charge fees more commonly appropriate to that investment management process, while in reality their funds are so similar to those of index tracking funds that they match the index. The allegation is that they are obtaining higher fees on the pretence of ...

Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies Trust AGM Report Summary

I attended the AGM of the Scottish Oriental Smaller Companies Trust (SST) yesterday (19/2/2015). This is an investment trust that is focussed on China, South-East Asia and India - yes there is not much Scottish about it apart from the fact that it is registered in Edinburgh and managed by First State Investment Management who are headquartered there (but whose parent is actually the Commonwealth Bank of Australia). Normally they hold their AGMs in Edinburgh but this year it was in First ...