Clear Books PLC shares

liljen120

Hi,

I regularly get an e-mail from Brendan Mclaughlin Petrol Prices and this week he sent one recommending buying shares in Clear Books PLC.

After reading through their balance sheets and profit/loss account, they look like they may do quite well in the future. The Price per share is £8.94 so I just bought the 1 for fun as I have never bought shares before and always been slightly intrigued.

When I got my certificate through it said
"is the registered proprietor of 1 Share of £0.0001 each in the above-named company, subject to the Memorandum
and Articles of Association of the Company, and that upon each of such shares the sum of £8.94 has been paid."
at which point I am already out of my depth and wondered if someone could explain this to me. I've searched all over the internet but it really is a minefield. What does this mean in monetary terms?

Thanks
Jen

dshart

You basically own one share in an unlisted company which is not traded on any exchange. So making it difficult to sell.

Biggles

You now own a (very small) part of Clear Books.

But it isn't a listed company, and probably never will be, so the chances of ever being able to sell your share at any time in the future seem fairly remote.

If you've read the documentation, you obviously took note that, 'The Board of Directors of Clear Books recommends that applications to subscribe for shares pursuant to the Share Offer should be made only by sophisticated investors who are high net worth individuals.'?

I must admit I was particularly careful not to buy, as I would never buy anything like that from anyone who sent me an email out of the blue (I was once subscribed to the Petrolprices emails but haven't been for some time). I wonder if it's even legal to try to sell shares in this way?

liljen120

Ok thanks for your time and information guys.

Was just really asking the mathematics of it all i.e. if the company make such & such profit, this means you would get 'X' amount.

Biggles

liljen120 wrote: »

Was just really asking the mathematics of it all i.e. if the company make such & such profit, this means you would get 'X' amount.

I don't think maths come into it. They go to great lengths to tell you that you aren't actually guaranteed to get anything - not even your money back.

But, you never know.

jimjames

liljen120 wrote: »

Hi,

I regularly get an e-mail from Brendan Mclaughlin Petrol Prices and this week he sent one recommending buying shares in Clear Books PLC.

I think you've misread the email. I can't see anything in it that is a recommendation. Information maybe but not recommending.

It does include this warning:

An investment in shares is speculative, and so you should carefully consider the risks and warnings in the Share Information Document on the link above before deciding if this is right for you. Fubra Ltd is a shareholder and director of Clear Books plc and we are supporting this venture.

The link also says:

There is no guarantee that dividends will be paid or if they are paid that they will be maintained at any particular level

So as it stands you can't easily sell the share and it won't provide an income. On the plus side you've only put £8.94 in so not a massive loss if it doesn't ever grow.

They have sold all the shares though, netting nearly £900,000 so someone must have believed in them.

Linton

liljen120 wrote: »

Hi,

I regularly get an e-mail from Brendan Mclaughlin Petrol Prices and this week he sent one recommending buying shares in Clear Books PLC.

After reading through their balance sheets and profit/loss account, they look like they may do quite well in the future. The Price per share is £8.94 so I just bought the 1 for fun as I have never bought shares before and always been slightly intrigued.

When I got my certificate through it said
"is the registered proprietor of 1 Share of £0.0001 each in the above-named company, subject to the Memorandum
and Articles of Association of the Company, and that upon each of such shares the sum of £8.94 has been paid."
at which point I am already out of my depth and wondered if someone could explain this to me. I've searched all over the internet but it really is a minefield. What does this mean in monetary terms?

Thanks
Jen

In practice it just means you have paid £8.94 for 1 share. The £0.0001 bit nowadays means nothing to investors and is there purely for accounting and legal reasons.

Any profit you make will come from two sources

a) Dividends
The company's board of directors may decide to give spare money to all share holders at a rate of n pence per share. This money frequently comes from the company's profits (though may come from reserves).

b) Value appreciation
If the company does well people may want your share and be prepared to pay you more than £8.94 for it. So the share price will increase and if you chose to sell you will have made a profit. Of course if the company does badly people may only be prepared to pay say £5 for your share which if you sell will lose you money.

Biggles

jimjames wrote: »

I think you've misread the email. I can't see anything in it that is a recommendation. Information maybe but not recommending.

No, he hasn't misread it. It was sent out as a mailshot intentionally to drum up funds. I don't get regular emails from Petrolprices any more, but I got this one; it was obviously sent to all current and past subscribers.

Hence my question re legality.

jimjames

Biggles wrote: »

No, he hasn't misread it. It was sent out as a mailshot intentionally to drum up funds. I don't get regular emails from Petrolprices any more, but I got this one; it was obviously sent to all current and past subscribers.

Hence my question re legality.

I got the email too and yes it was obviously to drum up funds by spreading the word that otherwise would have been unknown.

But importantly there was no wording I could see that could be construed as a recommendation. I'd think they were very careful with the wording to make sure. What may be questionable is using a mailing list created on the basis of sending weekly petrol prices and then using it to promote a company selling shares. That may well breach the DPA unless there was a clause in the original signup that we agreed to data sharing for marketing.

Exactly the same on this board, people may suggest ideas but nothing on here should be given or taken as a recommendation to invest.

BTW this was the email

It's Brendan here. I'm the co-founder of Fubra Ltd, the company which built PetrolPrices.com to help you find the cheapest fuel.

In 2008 my company, Fubra Ltd, invested in an online accounting startup called Clear Books Ltd, run by my good friend Tim Fouracre. He has recently raised over half a million pounds using crowd funding and is still looking for more investors to support his vision for the business. Shares are priced at just £8.94, so you can get involved for less than the price of a trip to the cinema.

I promised Tim that if he got to this stage I would let you know about it. Here's the link if you are interested:

Mr_K

liljen120 wrote: »

Hi,

I regularly get an e-mail from Brendan Mclaughlin Petrol Prices and this week he sent one recommending buying shares in Clear Books PLC.

It was a typo. He meant to say 'Clear Brooks PLC' - it's a sure thing and sponsored by News International. Invest away, can't lose.....

Biggles

jimjames wrote: »

But importantly there was no wording I could see that could be construed as a recommendation.

I hear what you say, JJ.

But if I sent a friend an email saying:-
I'm your friend
I've invested in this company
It's owned by my good friend
He's looking for more investors
You can invest too
It's very cheap
I promised him I would let you know
Then I think my said friend would think I was recommending that he invest.

;-)