AGMs

RELX – Company Information and Vote Guidance

by Cliff Weight, Director ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. I do not own shares in REXL. ShareSoc has introduced a new added value service, for Full Members only, providing background information on leading companies and AGM vote guidance. Initially we are piloting this for FTSE30 companies, plus a few others in the FTSE100. You can access all the information that ShareSoc has written on a company by clicking on the Research and Company Research buttons in ...

Rio Tinto – Company Information and Vote Guidance

by Cliff Weight, Director ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc. ShareSoc has introduced a new added value service, for Full Members only, providing background information on leading companies and AGM vote guidance. Initially we are piloting this for FTSE30 companies, plus a few others in the FTSE100. You can access all the information that ShareSoc has written on a company by clicking on the Research and Company Research buttons in the header on any ShareSoc webpage. This ...

Strategic Equity Capital GM

SEC still has a  20% discount (258p share price versus 312p NAV) and the Directors own pitifully few shares so have little skin in the game and no incentive to sort this out. I have registered my protest vote, via interactive investors' excellent voting platform (NOTE TO HARGREAVES LANSDOWN - you really ought to provide a better voting service to your customers). I think my vote is a protest vote as it looks likely the directors will win. Other shareholders should consider ...

Telegraph, 23 Feb 2021, How to use your broker to hold your investments to account

The Telegraph wrote a useful article about AGMs and voting. see https://www.telegraph.co.uk/investing/shares/use-broker-hold-investments-account/ It was headed How to use your broker to hold your investments to account But the real story was in the byline - Stockbrokers require investors to jump through lots of hoops to register their vote. It also explained the problems and quoted ShareSoc: However, new investors might not know that owning company shares comes with part ownership of a company – and with it the right to vote on issues at their annual ...

FT, 17 Jan 2021, UK Companies Warned Against Shutting Investors Out of AGMs

https://www.ft.com/content/64717715-98aa-415b-84e9-83764ae83d6f Cliff Weight, a director of ShareSoc, a shareholder organisation, said the introduction of a so-called hybrid approach — with both a physical and virtual element — was “a huge step forward” during the pandemic, with many more people attending AGMs and pre-AGM webinars than in the past.

Laggard Supermarket REIT: Show of Hands Vote at Closed Meeting

Whilst being a good company in most respects, it is a shame that Supermarket REIT (SUPR) has blotted its copybook with an undemocratic general meeting. A general meeting was held today (5th October), to approve the issue of shares in order to expand the REIT. The notice of meeting says: However, you are reminded that in light of social distancing measures imposed by the UK government as a result of the current COVID-19 Pandemic, any member seeking to attend the meeting in person ...

FT, 7 Aug 2020, Will Digital AGMs Replace Meeting Directors Over a Prawn Sandwich?

The article https://www.ft.com/content/293817d5-4d70-44c6-bf49-148b2baff59f quoted ShareSoc Patron Lord Lee and ShareSoc Director Cliff Weight: ...For some investors, the reason to attend an AGM is in the chance to interact with a company in person, lost in a virtual world. “The value is in the margins, over coffee before and in the half-hour afterwards over a buffet lunch or another coffee,” says Lord John Lee, the private investor and FT columnist [and ShareSoc Patron]. “The board will always stay around for a period to ...

Laggard Laggard: Another example of Show of Hands without attendance at Forterra plc AGM

Forterra plc held their meeting on 14 May 2020 and resolutions were passed by way of a show of hands, and yet, the provisions for the meeting were as follows: “As a result, shareholders are not permitted to attend the AGM in person and will not be admitted.  Questions can be submitted to your Board by e-mail to investors@forterra.co.ukand it is our intention to arrange a conference call with our Chief Executive and Chief Financial officers once the current crisis has passed.” So that ...

AGM – scope for change

There is an excellent FT article on AGMs  https://www.ft.com/content/1209fa2f-30a9-4a16-bcee-65743814acc2 (11 June 2020) which quotes me in some detail: Cliff Weight, from the individual shareholders group ShareSoc, says he is concerned that some companies see AGMs as a “waste of time and unnecessary, apart from the formalities” required by law. He fears some will use the disruption caused by the pandemic to rubber stamp bad practices, such as by making it harder for investors to question the board. ShareSoc believes a move towards live AGM ...

FT, 11 June 2020, Coronavirus Casts Doubt on Future of AGMs

There is an excellent FT article on AGMs  https://www.ft.com/content/1209fa2f-30a9-4a16-bcee-65743814acc2 (11 June 2020) which quotes me in some detail: Cliff Weight, from the individual shareholders group ShareSoc, says he is concerned that some companies see AGMs as a “waste of time and unnecessary, apart from the formalities” required by law. He fears some will use the disruption caused by the pandemic to rubber stamp bad practices, such as by making it harder for investors to question the board. ShareSoc believes a move towards live AGM ...