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Blinkx AGM Report – Was it a black swan event?

At the Blinkx AGM today the events of the last year were various described by the management as a "black swan event", "one in a 1000 years", and "a perfect storm". That probably echoed the emotions of shareholders after the Edelman blog, the attack by shorters, the resulting collapse in the share price, and the subsequent profits warning that caused it to fall by a further 60%. The share price peaked at 230p in November 2013 and is now 35p, so ...

Shareholder Class Actions

The topic of shareholder class actions is a controversial one. Before ShareSoc participates in any such actions, on behalf of its members, we therefore wish to obtain the views of our membership on this subject. We will shortly poll all our members, including associates, to ask your views. If you would like to cast a vote, and receive the other benefits that ShareSoc offers, but are not already a member, you can join us here: www.sharesoc.org/membership/ The poll will be e-mailed ...

Long standing directors and investment trusts

The UK Corporate Governance Code has a clear rule about non-executive directors who have served for more than nine years (Code B.1.1.) which states "The board should state its reasons if it determines that a director is independent notwithstanding the existence of relationships or circumstances which may appear relevant to its determination, including if the director: has served on the board for more than nine years from the date of their first election". This rule was not introduced to ensure that ...

Short selling petition

The recent shorting attacks on companies such as Quindell, Blinkx and Globo have dismayed many new investors in UK stock markets. Indeed this is what one of our correspondents had to say: "As someone who has recently taken the advice of many, including government, to invest in the stock market, I thought you might be interested to know that I have quickly realised that the whole thing is a manipulated scam and that I will be having nothing to do with ...

West Bromwich Building Society in profit

The West Bromwich Building Society recently issued their accounts for their financial year ending in March 2014. They actually managed to make a small profit after years of losses. Does that mean that the PIBS holders will start to receive their dividends again? In essence no. According to Peter Morgan who led a campaign on the issue, it might yet be another 5 years before these bondholders receive any interest whatsoever. To remind readers about this problem, in 2009, the Society ran ...