ShareSoc Blog
This blog gives you the latest topical news plus some informal comments on them from ShareSoc’s directors and other contributors. These are the personal comments of the authors and not necessarily the considered views of ShareSoc. The writers may hold shares in the companies mentioned. You can add your own comments on the blog posts, but note that ShareSoc reserves the right to remove or edit comments where they are inappropriate or defamatory.
There is more news given in the News page of our web site and more analysis of news is provided in our monthly newsletter for members – see the Newsletters page.
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by Cliff Weight, Director, ShareSoc. These are my personal views and not necessarily those of ShareSoc.
I do not own shares in Diageo, but my wife does, in her ISA. She bought in 1998 at £7.16 and they are now £35. With sales of £12.7bn, their EV (Enterprise Value = market cap plus debt) of £95 bn is > six times turnover and I don't see great barriers to entry at the global level or from supermarkets going direct to wine ...
This is a personal blog by ShareSoc director Cliff Weight and does not necessarily reflect the views of ShareSoc.
There is an excellent article in the Mail on Sunday today by Jeff Prestridge who is our key note speaker at the ShareSoc Woodford Webinar on 30 September - What happens next. click here to register
In today's article Jeff highlights that "the City regulator – the Financial Conduct Authority – has finally woken up from its lockdown slumber and decided to go all ...
Woodford Investors are flocking to ShareSoc’s What Happens Next event (30/09/21 at 5pm), headlined by Jeff Prestridge, Personal Finance editor of the Mail on Sunday. Tell your friends and family if they invested in a Woodford fund that they need to join them.
It’s time to update Woodford investors and ShareSoc Campaign members on progress to date. As well as update you on the prospects of you claiming back some of the losses and the potential timeline of when you might get ...
In our 9 page response we said:
We welcome this consultation paper CP21/21.
ShareSoc is a not-for-profit organisation with over 8,000 members. We represent the interests of 5 million individual shareholders and 12 million individual investors in the UK. We are members of Better Finance who, together with our sister organisations in other countries represent individual investors throughout Europe. We are also members of the World Federation of Investors. ShareSoc Chair, Mark Northway, is also Chair of the World Federation of Investors.
Our members ...
This article represents the views of its author and not necessarily those of ShareSoc
The Government is to push ahead with the scrapping of paper share certificates. An announcement yesterday by Lord Frost included this in a bonfire of regulations which also included plans to scrap driving licences (i.e. making them digital only). The dematerialisation of shares was long ago committed to by an EU directive with no new paper certificates to be issued by 2023 and all existing ones replaced by ...
There are in excess of 10 million investors who hold their shares in paper certificated form. So today's announcement by the Government is of interest.
Lord Frost set out the below points about getting rid of paper share certificates today as part of a Brexit regulatory review.
Dematerialisation of shares - Although the majority of shares are held in electronic form, a minority are held in paper form. It is more expensive and takes longer for holders of paper shares to trade them and there is ...
Andy Bell - founder of AJBell Youinvest - has generously offered ShareSoc a large number of copies of the latest edition of his classic book "The DIY Investor" issued in May this year. We are offering these e-books FREE (worth over £12) to all full members of ShareSoc on a first come first served basis until supplies are exhausted. If you want to download a copy* then please login to the ShareSoc website and go to the "Member Offers" page here - https://sharesocstagin.wpenginepowered.com/members-area/member-special-offers/special-offer-details/- to click ...
ShareSoc Patron Lord Lee is continuing his high profile campaign to get more mainstream coverage of investments and better financial education. The FT has a large article about these issues written by John Lee himself, see https://www.ft.com/content/2445a940-da11-4d08-8e4c-e5ad70d6b583 headed-
Stock market investment needs more television promotion -
Onerous rules limit broadcasters and hamper financial education
John writes:
There is widespread agreement that financial education in this country is lamentable. This manifests itself in so many ways, from the fact that many people just leave significant cash deposits ...
This article represents the views of its author, not necessarily those of ShareSoc.
The Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust (SLS) is proposing to change its name. The managers are currently Aberdeen Standard Fund Managers Limited but the name “Standard Life” has been sold to Phoenix Group so a change of name is not unreasonable.
Of course this is the kind of problem that arises when a trust is named after the fund manager. It also causes problems if the board of directors ...
Mike Ashley does it again: stirring up controversy over a proposed bonus scheme for his future son-in-law.
ShareSoc director (and former remuneration consultant) Cliff Weight is quoted in this article in the Daily Mail:
Cliff Weight, of small shareholders campaign group Sharesoc, also questioned why Murray was worth his enormous pay package.
He raised concerns that Ashley would be able to ram the proposal through at an annual general meeting next month even if other investors resist.
'This is clearly a case of a 60 ...
