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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On 11th July, the London Stock Exchange published a discussion paper (AIM Notice 46) with suggestions for modifications to the AIM rules and handbooks.
We are pleased that the LSE has responded to our call for an improvement in standards on the AIM market, as set out in our AIM Campaign and have in turn responded to the discussion paper. Our full response (12 pages) goes into considerable detail and can be read by clicking here. Prior to submitting the response ShareSoc Directors ...
Yesterday I missed the Sophos (SOPH) AGM due to having a clashing engagement, but I noticed that in the announcement of the voting results that there were substantial votes against the Remuneration Report (29.8% against) and also high votes against most of the directors. One only needs to glance at the Remuneration Policy to see why.
The maximum bonus opportunity is 200% of salary, and the maximum LTIP award is 500% of salary in normal circumstances and up to 750% in exceptional ...
Last week Phil Oakley, who mainly writes for ShareScope/SharePad, published a very interesting article entitled “A Blueprint for Better Long Term Investing”. This described his investment style in essence and contained lots of good tips from an experienced stock market analyst. For example: “Focus on businesses not stocks”, “Don’t overpay for quality companies” and “Avoid information overload”. It’s well worth reading and is here in full: Oakley-Article
Experienced investor Richard Beddard also joined that company recently and published an article entitled “Shares ...
On 7th April, Hunting announced the retirement of CEO Dennis Proctor: https://www.investegate.co.uk/hunting-plc--htg-/rns/retirement-of-dennis-proctor-as-chief-executive/201704070700088531B/
This follows a very difficult period for the company and its shareholders, as it suffers from sharp cutbacks in CAPEX by the oil & gas industry.
I was shocked to read this today: https://www.investegate.co.uk/hunting-plc--htg-/rns/directorate-change-and-remuneration-disclosure/201709010700054964P/
A payment of US$1,688,350 will shortly be made to Mr Proctor which includes US$785,600 related to his service contract obligations with the balance reflecting a settlement in connection with the cessation of employment.
(in addition to which Proctor retains ...
In a speech made in 2016, Theresa May said:
...And I want to see changes in the way that big business is governed. The people who run big businesses are supposed to be accountable to outsiders, to non-executive directors, who are supposed to ask the difficult questions, think about the long-term and defend the interests of shareholders. In practice, they are drawn from the same, narrow social and professional circles as the executive team and – as we have seen time and ...
Press Release 97 - Joint Press Release from UKSA and ShareSoc
Bizarre move to publish register of pay offenders managed by non-independent industry fund manager body the Investment Association
Positive steps re Stakeholders via FRC consultation on S172 reporting
Retail shareholders have been ignored again.
The government's long awaited package of reforms on corporate governance was published this morning. The main components of the reforms had already been widely 'leaked' to the media. This morning's publication confirms that the proposals fall well short ...
On 25th August in the FTMoney supplement, FT writer Aime Williams explained how small investors could influence companies. But unfortunately some points may have misled readers. I have sent Aime the following communication:
I read your article entitled “Small investors stand up and be counted” in this weekend’s FT with interest. It is good that the article shows how private investors can have an impact on companies, and it will no doubt encourage people to attend AGMs.
But the comments from Richard Stone ...
There was an interesting article in this week’s Investors Chronicle by John Rosier which discussed the number of holdings he had in his portfolio. He had attended a presentation by a well-known private investor who had 25% of his portfolio in one stock. John questioned whether he held too many stocks in his own portfolio (32 according to his portfolio list). He mused that Neil Woodford held 135 stocks in his UK Equity Income Fund but the largest 10 positions made ...
A second Broker that has been fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission for years of committing ADR Securities Violations.
This is yet another example of the unacceptable behaviour and bad culture that has pervaded far too many financial services organisations (and arguably still does). In this case Banca IMI Securities Corp issued ADRs even though it did not own the underlying shares. This made it possible for such ADRs to be used for inappropriate short selling or inappropriate profiting around dividend ...
Lots of financial pundits have encouraged investors to be “passive” investors rather than try to pick stocks, or invest in funds that do that latter (“active” funds). Even the FCA has recently criticised active funds for being more expensive and the additional management fees end up impacting negatively on overall returns over time. So persuasive writers such as John Bogle have convinced many to take the “no brainer” route of buying Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) or other index tracking funds.
But there ...
