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Surprises on Remuneration at the Kentz AGM, and opposition also at Hiscox

Surprises on Remuneration at the Kentz AGM,  and opposition also at Hiscox Last week (on Friday the 16th May), both the Remuneration Policy and Remuneration Report resolutions were voted down by shareholders at the Kentz Annual General Meeting. This is one of the few companies where such resolutions have been lost in the current AGM round and the first where the Remuneration Policy vote has been defeated. That vote was only introduced in the last year by new Government legislation, but oddly ...

Should you buy shares in Saga?

Here are some quick comments on the Saga IPO from skimming the prospectus before all the media do their in-depth analysis of what will no doubt be examined as a possible punt by both the millions of Saga customers and stock market speculators. Saga customers are favoured slightly in that they get one free share for every 20 purchased if they hold them for a year - hardly enough I suggest to sway my decision being one of their customers. But ...

Delays in SIPP and ISA transfers

Last week I complained to Hargreaves Lansdown about the delay in transferring a SIPP to another broker. The receiving broker has been chasing it but to no effect. It has been "pending" now for almost two months and I cannot understand the reason for such a long delay. What do I read on Friday but a number of similar complaints from readers of Investors Chronicle. There seems to be a consistent problem here, even where the transfer should be fairly straightforward. If for ...

Thoughts on AstraZeneca

Shareholders in AstraZeneca are no doubt pleasantly surprised by the uplift in the share price following the offers from Pfizer. The share price has doubled in the last year on improving prospects with an even sharper increase in the last few weeks as soon as a bid was rumoured. That puts the company on a historic p/e of about 20 at the time of writing. AstraZeneca has of course been a dog for some years with falling revenue and earnings, a poor ...

Selftrade annoys its customers

Selftrade, the execution-only stockbroker, has annoyed a large number of its customers by sending out a form asking for a lot of personal information about themselves. For example, several ShareSoc Members have contacted us to complain about the intrusive nature of the questions (which they consider a breach of privacy) and about the difficulty in completing the form due to the amount of detail required. It also generated a vociferous series of negative comments on Citywire after they mentioned the story ...