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Ventus and Ventus 2 VCTs– obstacles to a level playing field in unseating directors

By Cliff Weight, ShareSoc Director I was pleased to see the highly respected and influential Investors Chronicle taking an interest in and writing a balance article on the Ventus funds, see https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/comment/2019/07/18/limits-of-influence/ The IC seems to think ShareSoc is leading and driving the campaign, whereas the campaign leader is Nick Curtis, but other than this point I think it is a very good article. What is becoming apparent is how extremely difficult it is to unseat directors, because the playing field is tilted so ...

Pay at HSBC and Santander, Net Worth, Duplicate Dividends and Persimmon

Apparently bankers still live in an unreal world so far as most of us are concerned, even after the financial crisis of ten years ago when their remuneration was attacked. The Financial Times covered two stories on the pay of bankers in today’s edition (16/7/2019). The first was on the opposition to pay at Standard Chartered and comments from the CEO, Bill Winters, on it after a vote of almost 40% against their pay policy in May. The concern is mainly ...

Albion – Yet another VCT problem case

Albion Venture Capital Trust plc is proposing to rebase the incentive fee for its investment manager. The proposal looks too generous and will result in far too much of the value going to the managers and too little to shareholders. The new proposed threshold of RPI plus 2% is too low and the 20% share is too high. It would be very bad precedent if this was passed and became the norm for other VCTs. I recommend shareholders attend the AGM ...

Daily Mail, 14 July 2019, Thomas Cook – misleading investors?

Cliff Weight asks if Thomas Cook were misleading investors and if the FCA should investigate. https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-7246503/Thomas-Cook-slammed-misleading-investors-lifeline.html The 3 May RNS looks unduly optimistic in the light of today’s announcement. Thomas Cook’s directors need to be held to account for making such positive statements, which may have misled many individual investors. The shares were shorted over 10% before the 12 July announcement. This suggests the directors were slow to act to inform the market. Individual investors have a right to be treated fairly and prima ...

Renold Accounts, Audit Quality and Abnormal Price Movements

Chain maker Renold (RNO) has provided the latest example of sloppy accounting work. On the 9th July it reported that it had identified accounting issues in the three years ending March 2017, 2018 and 2019. Assets and profits were overstated and liabilities were understated in the Torque Transmission division. In total adjusted operating profits were overstated by £1.8 million. As a result the AGM is being postponed to give time for revising the Annual Accounts. Their auditors are Deloitte. The Financial Reporting ...