Financial Times

FT, 03 June 2022, Antidotes to pessimism in the UK’s audit reforms

Click here to read the article ShareSoc director Cliff Weight co-signed a letter published in the FT.  "In a perfect world for users of company accounts, reform of the UK’s audit and corporate governance regime would include a UK version of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This US law requires chief executives and finance directors to sign up to the truthfulness of material facts, and external audit of the effectiveness of internal controls. As your report notes (“Audit regulation shake-up to be diluted”, Report, May ...

FT, 13 May 2022, Don’t dismiss Aviva’s sexist AGM as a one-off

Click here to read the article The FT covers the unacceptable behaviour of a wayward attendee at the Aviva AGM and quotes ShareSoc's Director Cliff Weight. ShareSoc is appalled at the misogynistic comments directed at the Aviva CEO, Amanda Blanc, but is concerned that a narrative may being created that could result in the lessening of individual investors key role in holding Boards to account at AGMs. The vast majority of individual investors attending AGMs do nor behave like this. We do however, ...

FT, 17 Nov 2021, Scaled back UK audit reforms attract investor anger

Click here to read the article ShareSoc has been mentioned in the Financial Times on 17/11/21. The article focusses on how investors and audit groups have urged the UK government to rethink plans to scale back corporate governance and audit reforms, arguing that any watering down of the proposals would risk further corporate scandals.   Investor groups also expressed their alarm. In a joint letter last week to the FT, CFA UK, Corporate Reporting Users’ Forum, UK Shareholders’ Association and ShareSoc also criticised plans to ...

FT, 22 Oct 2021, Getting heard on climate: small investors take on big companies

Click here to read the article Alice Ross, FT Deputy Editor, has written a major article about how "Retail shareholders can get organised and can push for change if they band together". The article focusses on the successes of the pressure group ShareAction who have successfully used their AGM Army to ask questions at AGMs and lobby for change. However, Cliff Weight and ShareSoc are also quoted at some length.   One problem for retail investor engagement, however, is that the vast majority remain uninvolved. ...

FT One-Sided on Brexit?

Do you read the Financial Times? If so have you found the repeated articles on Brexit (including many editorials) somewhat one-sided? Well yesterday the Financial Times actually published a letter from Campbell Gordon complaining about it, and it's not often that editors publish letters critical of what they are issuing. But what do we get today? Yet another editorial on the same topic and with the same slant - in this case explaining why scientists are unhappy with Brexit and should not ...

FT Acquisition, Toshiba, Diageo, Healthcare Locums, False Accounting, Chinese Companies, and AIM

The Financial Times is being sold by Pearson to Japanese media group Nikkei Group. The Chairman of Nikkei was quoted as saying it will be "business as usual" (in the FT of course) and that the "philosophy and values of the FT are the same as ours". Clearly they are still in the honeymoon period but let us hope that is true as the FT provides excellent factual news and commentary in general. Here's just some of the news they have ...