Are These Old Shares Still Valid ?

KK21_2

Hi

I'm writing on behalf of my father, who sadly has Alzheimer's. I have Enduring Power of Attorney to assist.

I have found in his house several old share certificates, which we are not sure about. I am aware that some companies are taken over, new names come out etc etc. Listed below are details of the share certicates that I have found.

Could somebody please advise on which are still valid shares etc etc

If a current price could be given, that would be even better. I'm not too sure as some companies have different nominal values for their shares. On the TV it will only show one share value against a particular company

The shares are :-
Name Type of share Nominal value Share date
Northern Electric Ordinary 50p 15/09/1992
Northern Electric Preference 1p 11/09/1995
Abbey National Ordinary 10p 07/08/1989
Centrica Ordinary 5 5/9p 11/05/1999
BG plc Ordinary 1 2/15p 17/12/1998
BG Group plc Ordinary 10p 13/12/1999
Rolls Royce Preference 0.1p (B) 30/06/2006
British Gas Ordinary 25p 20/06/1988
BG plc Ordinary 25p 17/02/1997
Centrica Ordinary 5p 17/12/1997
National Grid Ordinary 11 13/17p 09/02/1998
National Grid Ordinary 10p 31/01/2002
BAA Ordinary £1 05/08/1994
BT Ordinary 25p 11/10/1994
TSB Ordinary 25p 25/11/1987

Many thanks

Rhino666

Hi Pink-Winged

Use this Hargreaves Lansdown link to see if the share still exists. You will need to use the lookup option on the right to find the correct code for each share......

http://www.h-l.co.uk/shares_and_stock_markets/shares_and_stock_markets.hl

I would also contact the registrar on each certificate to ensure that your father's holding still have value and have not previously been sold. Obviously you will need some sort of power of athorney to do anything with the shares.

moneyandmountains

KK21 wrote: »

I have found in his house several old share certificates, which we are not sure about. I am aware that some companies are taken over, new names come out etc etc. Listed below are details of the share certicates that I have found.

Could somebody please advise on which are still valid shares etc etc

Several of the shares listed pay dividends. Are you aware of if your father has been receiving these dividends?
Has he moved address in the last few years. If so, then the share registrars may have been sending information / new certificates etc. to the wrong address.

I would suggest that the best thing to do is to contact the registrars immediately.

The 3 main Registrars in the UK are:

LLoyds TSB Registrars
http://www.lloydstsb-registrars.co.uk/

Capita
http://www.capitaregistrars.com/

ComputerShare
http://www.computershare.com/

They should each be able to tell you which of the companies they deal with. They should be able to advise you by phone what information they require, and where to write to.

Failing that, a quick look on each company's web page should tell you who their share registrar is.

chesky369

You can register with the London Stock exchange (it doesn't cost anything) and look up each company to not only see the share price, but see how it changes on a minute-to-minute basis (15 minute delay). If you then click on the name of the company, it gives you more detail, including a direct link to the company's website.

chesky369

I meant with the London stock exchange ON LINE - sorry for the omission.

Mr_Mumble

You've got some work ahead KK21!

You can go to https://www.selftrade.co.uk and just type in the company name to find out the latest issue. E.g. Putting "Rolls Royce" into the search brings up the preference shares that you have " ROLLS-ROYCE B B SHS 0.1P " (ticker symbol RR.B) second on the list (after the main shares). This PDF gives a list of all the nominal values alongside the company name.

Unfortunately I think the Rolls Royce certificate is the only shareholding that is currently up-to-date. Rolls Royce issue these B shares instead of dividends so they probably aren't worth much.

You'll need to get in touch with the registrars for the likes of BT, Centrica, BG and National Grid to update the share certificates since the nominal values for these shares are all different to the ones you have listed.

TSB merged with Lloyds of course, should be a reasonably simple job to check with the registrar here, since it is Lloyds TSB! Abbey shares will now be Santander shares and BAA have been taken over. You shouldn't have many problems sorting these two out since the takeovers took place in the last couple of years. Check the Abbey and BAA websites for contact details.

Northern Electric have a convoluted history and is likely to be the most troublesome. If the registrars can't help you should pester both CalEnergy and CE Electric to find out who is responsible.

Taboo89

I have my mothers old abbey national share certifcate , which has been sending dividends to an old address for almost 18 years now with all the upto date details, i want to change the address to my present address in order to do so i have to fill out the form on the abbey website which requires me to provide a holders reference number theirs a couple of numbers on the share certifcate as my mother told me that the cetifcate came with a book or something which is long gone now, is the holders reference on the actual cerficate, it'd be a shame to throw away 1k . If anyone has one of these old abbey national share certificate could you tell me whether the reference number is on the share certifcate.

Jake'sGran

Hello Taboo, On my share certificates my reference is shown at the top right hand side. It would also be on any covering letters that are with the certs.
Were these shares signed over to you or are they still owned by your Mum?
If they were signed over to you I would send a brief email to the registrar mentioning one of the numbers. If they say it wrong try the other. You have not said if your Mum is deceased. If she is you will need to be an executor of her will or have a power of attorney. If she is still alive and well and you want to sell the shares everything will need to be signed by her (unless you have power of attorney) and they can be sold through any broker for a fee.
There are so many ifs and buts because you have not made the situation clear enough.

DRS1

Abbey National was taken over by a Spanish bank called Santander and your mother should have got a certificate of entitlement to some CDIs in Santander in place of her Abbey Nat share certificate. The holder's number is on that certificate. I don't think there was one on the old Abbey Nat certificates.

Taboo89

Hello Jakes Gran
No my mother is not deceased, and the shares have not yet been signed over to me, we have changed address atleast three times since. So in all of 18 years abbey has continued to send her abbey share details to that old address, we have a CDI account with banco santander (which i recently checked)but in order to formly change address i would need my mothers holders reference number which i dont think we have on the share certificate,also every time i tell banco sandtander all the numbers on the share certificate they say their incorrect.
I recently spoke to Abbey who were willing to send me a holders confirmation but only to the address on the share certifcate.

So if this makes my situation any clearer, any help or advice would be very much appreciated

Jake'sGran

Taboo89 wrote: »

Hello Jakes Gran
No my mother is not deceased, and the shares have not yet been signed over to me, we have changed address atleast three times since. So in all of 18 years abbey has continued to send her abbey share details to that old address, we have a CDI account with banco santander (which i recently checked)but in order to formly change address i would need my mothers holders reference number which i dont think we have on the share certificate,also every time i tell banco sandtander all the numbers on the share certificate they say their incorrect.
I recently spoke to Abbey who were willing to send me a holders confirmation but only to the address on the share certifcate.

So if this makes my situation any clearer, any help or advice would be very much appreciated

There must be a ruling body who will give advice about possible problems with a share holding but whoever you approach will want your Mum's current address. She needs to write to Abbey and Santander to formally advise them of her current address and asking them to send dividends and correspondence to it.. With the letters you could enclose a copy of the share certificate. I suppose you (she) could also write to the Registrar for Abbey/Santander's shares also enclosing a copy of the certificate and asking for the reference.

You have got me curious now so I will have a look for the registrar/any other official body. Finally, my favourite financial adviser writes a column in The Sunday Times. She is Diana Wright. She gets more complaints about Abbey than any other financial outfit. Providing you give her copies of everything she will look into it for you but you must have acted in a proper fashion with regard to all this. Let me know how you get on.