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Pan African Resources AGM Report – a minor victory for shareholders on buy-backs

Pan African Resources is a South African gold mining company, but they are registered in the UK and hence hold their AGMs in London. This year it was at 10.00 am on the 22nd November in the City of London despite shareholders complaining about the 10.00 am start time last year. A full report is here, but here are some of the noteworthy points. Only the Chairman Keith Spencer was present from the directors, and he said the main reason for absence ...

Netcall AGM Report – it was not crowded!

There was no crowd at the Netcall Annual General Meeting today – indeed only me for the meeting, other than the directors and the corporate folks, which was over in about 15 minutes. There would have been a second person but it seems he was in reception and was not told the meeting had started.  A tip for attendees at AGMs – the meeting almost always start on time so if you have not been invited into the room by the ...

Directors’ Pay and Galliford Try – Apathy reigns

The pay of directors in FTSE100 companies continues to power ahead. Up 14% in the past year according to Income Data Services, based on median total remuneration.  This is six times more than the average earnings of all employees. The large increase has been driven by rises in the value of LTIPs (typically share-based pay-outs based on performance measures). These payments are often not at all obvious in Remuneration Reports at present. A good example is Galliford Try, the building company, whose AGM ...

The level of speculation in AIM stocks

How much speculation is there in AIM stocks? Quite a lot based on some figures recently published in a FinnCap newsletter. “Speculation” might be defined as a short term bet on a share price rising or falling. That’s the opposite of “investment” where someone takes a view on the medium to long term returns from investing in a company. These are the figures published by Finncap for the ten most traded AIM stocks in September – based on the percentage of the overall ...

Why should investors not see performance fee details at Northern VCT?

Northern Venture Trust (a VCT) introduced a management performance fee at a General Meeting on the 18th July. They did not have one before even though they had outperformed the very similar Northern 2 VCT over the last ten years who do. I spoke against the introduction of such a fee at the General Meeting, and raised questions about how the fees were to be calculated, as did another shareholder. The calculations were not at all clear from the meeting notice. As ...