ShareSoc News

Response to BEIS Consultation on Green Paper on Corporate Governance

ShareSoc’s response to the public consultation on the Green Paper issued by the BEIS Department on Corporate Governance is present here: Green-Paper-Corporate-Governance-Response

RBS Rejects Democracy

PRESS RELEASE 87 01/02/2017 The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has rejected a requisition to implement a Shareholder Committee. ShareSoc will not permit this unreasonable obstruction of shareholder democracy to stand. It is a basic principle of Company Law that shareholders can requisition resolutions which must be put to a vote of shareholders. If the directors do not like a requisition, then they can advise shareholders to vote against it. But they should not be using tenuous technical excuses to avoid putting ...

FCA’s Mission Needs Substantial Reform, says ShareSoc

PRESS RELEASE 86 23/01/2017 ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) has submitted its response to the Financial Conduct Authority's public consultation on its "Future Mission" with a hard-hitting critique of their activities. We have been concerned for some time about the effectiveness and focus of the FCA and the consultation document tends to reinforce our view on that. It is a somewhat discursive document without a clear focus on the main issues that need to be faced in the future by the FCA, ...

ShareSoc’s response to the public consultation by the FCA on its “Future Mission”

ShareSoc’s response to the public consultation by the FCA on its "Future Mission" is given in this document: FCA-Mission-ShareSoc-Response

RBS Shareholders Demand Shareholder Committee

PRESS RELEASE 85 30/12/2016 A joint press release on behalf of Private Investors from ShareSoc & UKSA Over 100 shareholders in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), supported and coordinated by ShareSoc and UKSA, have requisitioned a resolution to install a new "Shareholder Committee" at the company which will include shareholder representatives so as to improve the corporate governance at the bank. RBS will now have to put this proposal to a vote at their Annual General Meeting (AGM) in May 2017. ShareSoc and UKSA ...

ShareSoc’s response on the reform of Stamp Duty

ShareSoc’s submission to the Office of Tax Simplification on their review of Stamp Duty is in this document: Stamp-Duty-Review

ShareSoc Welcomes Corporate Governance Review

PRESS RELEASE 84 29/11/2016 ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) welcomes the Government's announcement today of a review of Corporate Governance in both public and larger private companies. It is good to see that the Green Paper both discusses the problems of executive pay and the influence of stakeholders other than shareholders on businesses while setting out a number of options for further reform. As regards director pay, the document makes clear that despite more obligations on companies on reporting and voting on ...

ShareSoc’s submission to the Parliament BIS Select Committee’s inquiry into Corporate Governance

The following press release on ShareSoc’s submission to the Parliament BIS Select Committee’s inquiry into Corporate Governance was issued: Press083. The full submission is present here: BIS-Committee-Submission

ShareSoc Requests More Power for Ultimate Investors

PRESS RELEASE 83 25/10/2016 ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) has today submitted its written evidence to the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee inquiry on corporate governance. In summary: The goal should be to get more power back to the ultimate investors. This can be achieved by: Ensuring that individual shareholders can exercise their rights, even if their shares are held in nominee accounts. ShareSoc, if sufficiently well resourced, can play a role by ensuring that individual shareholders are educated about their rights and ...

ShareSoc Advises Investors to Vote Against Berkeley Remuneration Report

PRESS RELEASE 82 23/08/2016 ShareSoc (the UK Individual Shareholders Society) is advising its Members to vote against the Remuneration Report resolution at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting of Berkeley Group Holdings Plc. ShareSoc considers: - The 2011 LTIP plan total payouts are likely to be more than £400 million and are excessive. The plan dilutes shareholders by 14%, even though awards were made towards the bottom of the cycle. The dilution should have been half of what was agreed. This is an unnecessary transfer ...