ShareSoc: Fighting investors’ corner

“If you are an individual investor in the stock market, then you should be a member of ShareSoc.”

ShareSoc is a not-for-profit membership organisation, created by investors to support individuals who invest directly in the UK stock market. Founded in 2011, we have grown rapidly and now have well over 3,600 members. Many are experienced investors, with some 14% boasting portfolios in excess of £1 million.

Individual investors are the key cogs in the huge financial market machine. The key to investment is overall portfolio growth and that takes diligence, good judgment and hard work. As investors we will occasionally make a really good decision and select a multi-bagger, but we can’t get it right every time and we all have horror stories to tell. We know only too well that shares can go down as well as up and we accept this risk every time we make an investment decision. However, just occasionally, we feel that a loss relates not to business and market risks but to questionable actions by company management or others.

Without ShareSoc’s lobbying, a number of FCA investigations would never have started.

This is where ShareSoc comes in. We work to eliminate dubious and illegal practices that disadvantage individual shareholders and to press for individual perpetrators to be punished. Only by doing this can we be sure we are being treated fairly and honestly by the companies who issue shares and by the rest of the industry that makes a living from the trade in them – brokers, fund managers, wealth managers, market makers, IFAs and others.

We promote your rights to companies and we seek to influence Government and regulatory policy. We want to ensure that individual shareholders have their proper say as owners of the businesses in which they invest. Without ShareSoc’s lobbying, a number of FCA investigations would never have started. We remain concerned about the FCA’s lack of transparency in dealing with some culprits. Equally, the LSE have often remained silent when AIM listed companies have behaved badly and flouted their rules. Supervisory bodies need to be held to account on a regular basis to protect the interests of individual shareholders.

Some of ShareSoc’s recent campaign successes:

– Substantial changes at two of the Oxford Technology VCTs after they were threatened with the loss of their VCT status
– Improved performance and reduced management fees at Rensburg AIM VCT
– Revised LTIP at Intercede Group
– Reduced discount to NAV at Graphite Enterprise Trust
– Restructuring at Alliance Trust

Our ongoing corporate campaigns include:

– Redcentric (accounting irregularities)
– RBS (shareholder committee requisition)
– Globo (shareholder redress)
– Foresight 4 (performance, board composition, proposed merger)

And at policy level we are currently lobbying for:

– Improvements in the governance of the AIM market
– Reform of the nominee shareholding system
– Introduction of shareholder committees for listed companies
– Better directors’ remuneration policies

Further information on ShareSoc campaigns can be found here.

In the past year, ShareSoc has responded to seven government and regulatory consultations to ensure the voice of the individual investor is heard (including FCA Mission Review, Green Paper on Corporate Governance, Stamp duty Review). We have also issued director remuneration guidelines for all small-cap companies. ShareSoc is an important information provider, supplying in-depth company reports and bringing relevant matters to the attention of our members through our blog and through our monthly newsletter. In 2016 we attended and reported on 73 company AGMs. Our objective here is to help you to make money by keeping you informed.

In 2016 we attended and reported on 73 company AGMs. Our objective here is to help you to make money by keeping you informed.

ShareSoc is also a networking and educational organisation. In the past 12 months we have hosted 26 investor events around the UK, with1,000 attendees and 60 presenting companies. These are excellent opportunities to engage with the executives of your investee companies, to review possible investments, to exchange ideas and views with like minded investors, and to come and meet the ShareSoc board. We encourage all members to attend.

Additionally, ShareSoc makes educational resources available to its members. We hold regular investor master classes, and have developed an investor academy resource base which will be available on our website.

By joining us you give yourself and your fellow investors a more powerful voice – together, we can be a force for good in the equity markets, ensuring that we all get a fair deal at a reasonable price.

Please sign up with us at stand 87-90 at the Master Investor Show on the 25^th March (where you stand a chance of winning a prize) or join via our website.

If you are an individual investor in the stock market, then you should be a member of ShareSoc.